


A Mandalorian Walks into an Inn - OLD VERSION

by spacegayofficial



Series: AMWIAI [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Anal, Blowjobs, Choking, Dom/sub, F/F, F/M, I understand this is in first person but if you wanna treat it as a reader insert please go ahead!!, Light BDSM, Multi, Multiple Orgasms, Oral Sex, Overstimulation, PWP more or less, Penis In Vagina Sex, Rope Bondage, Ruined Orgasms, Strap-Ons, Thessa Said Daddy And I Want To Arrest Her, Threesome - F/F/M, Vibrators, cara dune is hot and i know im not the only one who thinks this, dom mando/sub reader/oc, face fucking, more heavy BDSM stuff starting in chapter 7, nothing incredibly graphic but it's also not Fun, slight daddy kink stuff im sorry, some fluff incoming a little later, some violence/torture in chapter 8, super light humiliation stuff also, there's some spanking and handcuffs yknow, unresolved trauma?????????????? that might not go anywhere though, we're all thirsty for a suit of armor and honestly thats ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 11:14:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21968398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacegayofficial/pseuds/spacegayofficial
Summary: When Thessa, a former rebel pilot, meets the Mandalorian, she immediately develops a stupid crush. Upon learning she's a former Rebel pilot after she'd proven herself capable with the Child, he recruits her. Things escalate soon after he helps her patch up an injury she received on their first job together.THIS IS THE OLD VERSION - PLEASE GO TO THE OTHER WORK IN THIS SERIES FOR THE NEW ONE!
Relationships: The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Original Female Character(s), The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Reader
Series: AMWIAI [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741336
Comments: 10
Kudos: 215





	1. Unexpected Visitors

It was a pain like I’d never felt in my life. Burning didn’t cut it. The weight of the beam across my back, it forced me to feel each corner, splinter, and ember press into my flesh, causing me to scream out, cry.

I knew I shouldn’t have let that damn shiny-armored Mandalorian stay. I let my interest, my feelings, my curiosity get in the way of my logic. I wanted to protect our town, our whole planet if I could. Letting this ex-guild, on-the-run bounty hunter hide here for more than a night or two was a terrible idea. Or maybe it was the best idea I’d ever had.

Either way, he strode right into the village. Right into my mind, and right under my skin.

It was the middle of the afternoon, and the town was bustling. Traveling tradespeople were selling their wares, bartering for what we had produced here. Mainly crops, some edible, some useful for other things; building, medicine, decoration. But we had some other things to offer as well. Cloth, woven by a group of five women who spent their days chatting away on their porch in front of their house as they created their craft. Wooden bowls and cups turned by a local craftsman. A smattering of weapons and armor that had been traded in town and were being traded again, hopefully for a profit. I was standing outside of the inn I helped run, watching the business transactions with a smile. We weren’t a large town, but we were big enough to draw attention from business owners. Even big enough to have our own small ship bay—a couple from a city only a few hours away came and opened it recently.

Something in my gut knew it wasn’t ideal when an old looking, but fairly well maintained, ship came and landed in that bay. I blinked. It looked familiar. “That thing must be pre-Empire. Has to be,” I overheard a passerby say as we all watched it land. _The Razor Crest._ Once it was hidden from view, everyone returned to their shopping and trading. Ideal, maybe not, but not bad, right? Sure we don’t get a lot of visitors, but who knows, maybe it’s more business. Either way whoever it is will have to spend credits while they’re here, right? I managed to convince myself it would be fine. For now.

I turned and went back inside, heading behind the counter and getting my things ready for someone to check in. Not many of the traveling salespeople had booked rooms with our inn for the night, so I had a couple of rooms left if our visitor needed a room as well. I went into our back room to grab something, and when I came back to the counter, our visitor had arrived. I hadn’t even heard him come in.

Tall. He was so _tall._ And… shiny. The T-shaped visor in his helmet told me who he was to a degree: a Mandalorian. You don’t see many of those around anymore. He held himself with confidence, which mixed with the armor and weapon across his back to create intimidation. I tried my best not to cave to it. I was also immediately intrigued. Mysterious figures like this always did that to me, though mainly in fiction. This was real though, and for some reason it made my stomach fill with butterflies for a brief moment.

“Hello there. Can I help you?” I asked, smiling at the Mandalorian.

“We need lodging. Do you have any rooms?” he asked, his voice modulated through the helmet. A deep tone that was pleasant to hear, even through the electronics.

“I do! Um… we?” I asked, stepping closer to the counter to jot down which room he’d be in. As I stepped forward, though, I saw who “we” entailed. A small green being, barely coming to his mid shin, stood next to him, wrapped in thick brown robes. Possibly the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. I could barely hold back an “aw.” “Oh! A little one! Do you want a crib in the room?”

“If you have one available.” Man of few words, I could tell already.

“Absolutely. Let me show you to your room and I’ll grab one for you.” I stepped out from behind the counter and around to a hallway leading further into the building. “This way, please!” The Mandalorian scooped the little child up in his arms and stepped forward.

I had shown people to their rooms a million times. But there was something that was almost… nerve-wracking about this specific tour. The way he followed me was almost like stalking, like he was hunting me, waiting for me to make a mistake. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me or anything like that, he had a child with him, and the way he picked the little one up and carried them in his arms with care told me he really had the ability to be gentle. He was not just a hunter, but a protector as well.

We arrived at the room he’d be staying in, and I opened the door for him. “Here’s your room. I’ll be right back with that crib.” And right back I was, as the storage closet it stayed in was just a couple doors down the hall. I rolled it back into our new guest’s room and placed it in the corner. “I’ll set it here for now, but please feel free to move it wherever you need. Is there anything else I can do for you?” I asked, smiling at the expressionless helmet of the person in front of me.

“Something to eat for the little one.”

I nodded. “Absolutely. My cook just put a pot of soup on. I can bring some in just a few minutes. If you need anything else, my name is Thessa.”

“Thank you, Thessa.”

That gave me goosebumps. I had managed to develop crushes on strangers who’d stayed here before, sure, but this felt… different. He’d spoken 23 words to me the entire time, and he seemed so secretive. Was it the helmet? The armor? The child? All of it? I knew Mandalorians didn’t take off their helmets as a matter of principle, or religion, or something. Like I said, you don’t see many of them around here. Maybe that was it. He was definitely nearly impossible to read beside the fact he clearly cared deeply about this child.

I nodded hoping I wasn’t blushing, and left the room to check on how my cook, Cerniki, was doing with the soup. We didn’t have a large kitchen or an extensive menu by any means, but enough to help weary travelers refuel nonetheless. I began to assemble a tray, adding some bread, a glass of water, and a small candy to the tray. I grabbed one bowl, hesitated, then grabbed another. I know that he said for the little one, but surely he was hungry as well. Several minutes passed and the soup was ready to be served. I ladled it into the bowls, carefully picked up the tray, thanked Cerniki, and walked back to the Mandalorian’s room. I knocked on the door, and before my hand was even completely down, the door was opened. So he was fast, too.

“I brought you a bowl as well. I figured you had to be hungry too.” I offered him the tray, and he took it.

“Thank you.”

“Absolutely! If you decide you need more to eat, Cerniki in the kitchen can get you set up I’m sure,” I smiled again. Then my curiosity fought out my customer service and logic. “So, um, if you don’t mind me asking, what brings a Mandalorian here? We don’t get a ton of ships landing here, what with one bay and all.”

He stepped back into the room, setting the tray down on a table, and giving the child, who was sitting in a seat in the corner, one of the bowls of soup, which he began to slurp up happily.

“Work. This child is a… new responsibility of mine, and an unexpected one.” He watched the child eat as he said this. At least I assumed he did, since I couldn’t tell exactly where his eyes were, but he did seem pretty intent.

“Well, I take it he isn’t… yours? Unless you’re actually tiny and green,” I joked, watching him watch the child. Part of me knew he knew I was watching him, though. I felt details didn’t get past him.

There was a pause where I could’ve sworn he laughed softly, but maybe it was a trick of my ear and his modulator. “No. It was…” he trailed off, choosing his words carefully. “I found him while I was working. It’s a long story.” I could tell he was telling the truth.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. If you need help watching him, I’d be happy to while you look for work here. Good place to look might be the bar down the street. You might be able to find an odd job,” I suggested.

He turned to look at me, and there was a long pause. Again, intimidating. Like he was studying me, seeing right into my soul, weighing it to see if I was truthful or not. After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke again. “I would appreciate that.”

“Sure thing. Well, let me know if you need anything else. If it’s after sundown and I’m not at the desk, my room is up the stairs next to it, first door on the left,” I said, smiling despite feeling like I had just had my whole conscious dissected by a glance. He gave a small nod in understanding, and I turned and left.

As I walked back to the desk my mind raced. The thought of him getting just a little closer to me, saying my name again, touching me with a gloved hand made my heart flutter a bit. I knew I was just enamored with the mystery of his presence, but something else nagged at me. Despite the initial shininess of his armor, it had scratches, discoloration that told a story of fights, adventures, close calls. This man had seen things, felt things, and he probably hurt deep down because of it. But despite that, he clearly cared for this child, an admittedly soft thing to do. And the long moment of thought he took before agreeing to let me watch the child told me it was something he took very seriously. Not giving his trust out left and right. All fair.

The first couple of days of Mando’s visit went just fine. He was finding work, small bounties apparently. But he was causing… tension. There were about a dozen or so regular traveling salespeople that just stopped showing up if they knew he was here. Understandable, I suppose, but a little bit frustrating. Some of those people had supplies we needed, and we couldn’t constantly send our own residents out on trips to the next city over just to restock. Fuel and speeders were expensive and rare for us.

But as the days went on, and I spent more time with the child, I spent more time with him. He gained more personality around me. More words.

“How was today, Mando?” I asked him as he came in one evening. I had the child sitting on the desk as I did some light accounting work for the inn. The child cooed as he realized he’d returned.

“Good. Finished up a bit earlier than expected. The target didn’t make it easy. Could you watch the kid for a few more minutes? I need to patch some things up,” he said, gesturing in the direction of his room.

“Sure. Do you need anything?” I asked, looking at him with some concern as I noticed a few new dents in his armor and some dark spots, almost definitely blood, where his armor left fabric bare.

“No, I have what I need. Thank you, Thessa.” That gave me goosebumps again, and I blushed lightly.

“You’re more than welcome.”

He disappeared into his room for a while. I imagined him patching up his wounds by himself. How much easier it would be if I could help. But was he even allowed to show his skin? I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t going to ask him about the helmet thing, I knew he must’ve gotten that question a million times. Nonetheless I wondered what he looked like under it. What color his eyes were, his hair, if his lips were soft, how it felt to have his against mine...

My daydream was interrupted by him coming back to pick the child up. I blinked and felt my cheeks heat up, worried for a moment he could read my thoughts. “All good?” I asked him, picking up the kid and handing him over.

“Yes. Thank you again for watching him.” He took the child from my hands.

“Absolutely.” I paused for a moment. “Mando?”

“Yes?”

What the hell did I even want to say? “Uh… good night,” I finally said. “If you need anything you know where to find me.”

He nodded and stepped back to his room. As soon as the door shut behind him I silently chastised myself, shaking my head. Sure, yeah, getting crushes on people was something I had a bad habit of doing, but this was something else. The kid, the mystery, his _voice._ I had to stop these feelings from growing. I sighed and walked up the stairs to my room. It was getting late and despite having had a fairly uneventful day regarding the inn and my actual main job, that little womp rat the Mandalorian brought in here was exhausting! He acted innocent enough, but he was good at wandering off and getting into things he certainly should not get into. I found him at one point after turning my back for a split second on a counter in the kitchen trying to pick up a knife, which was definitely one of the more dangerous things I’ve caught him doing, but he was still a troublemaker.

I yawned as I shut the door behind me and started to change into some bedclothes. At just the perfect opportune time during my change when I had only a pair of loose fitting pants on, there was a knock at the door.

“Hold on just a second,” I said, voice raised slightly so whoever it was could hear me. I had yet to find a shirt to wear so I grabbed the nearest thing to the door- my old pilot jacket that was gifted to me from a couple friends. I was former Rebellion. I tried not to flaunt it, talk about it too much, but it was still something I was proud to have done.

I opened the door and the Mandalorian towered over me. I was suddenly _acutely_ aware there was nothing covering me under this jacket. He had the kid with him, however, so that somewhat broke the tension. Somewhat. I coughed, feeling my cheeks heat up.

“Sorry to bother you. Do you have a… lock? Or something to keep the kid from wandering off? He’s figured out how to climb out of that crib and open the door.”

I laughed a little. “Yeah, I have a baby-proofing door knob slip that’ll make it so he can’t turn it. Give me a second, okay?” I said, turning and zipping up my jacket so my entire chest didn’t fall out.

“You’re a rebel pilot?” he asked.

“Well, was. But yeah. Know how to fight, too,” I admitted. Not entirely sure why I tacked that on. Maybe I was hoping he’d ask me to help. Maybe to impress him. I wasn’t sure. I turned and started to head downstairs.

I walked back to that earlier supply closet a couple doors down from where he was staying and pulled out the cover. “Think this’ll do the trick?” I asked.

He nodded. “Should help.”

I took it back to his room and clipped it on over the knob. “You gotta squeeze pretty hard, so unless he can get that tiny little hand around it all the way he shouldn’t be able to get out,” I said. I knelt down to the little one who Mando had set down and allowed to toddle over to me. “Now you need to stay in your crib and sleep! You want to grow up big and strong, just like your—uh… dad?” I said the last bit like a question, partly not sure what else to say, but not sure if that’s the title he wanted. His head tilted just a little bit as I said it. My insides went into a minor panic as I was afraid I’d upset him.

I snapped upright and coughed again. “Okay, well, if there’s nothing else, I’m gonna—” I said hastily, moving to step out the door.

Mando reaches out and arm and grabbed me, not hard, but enough to get my attention. “Wait, Thessa, I—” he paused, and slowly took his hand back. My heart fluttered at the touch, butterflies building in my stomach. My face must’ve been beet red. I wished silently he hadn’t put his hand back. “You’re a pilot. You’re great with the kid. I could use help from someone like you.”

My eyes widened. _Be careful what you wish for, dingus,_ I thought to myself. “I… I mean…” I sputtered. “I'd... the inn… I’d have to think about that,” I said. _The answer was hell yes!_ my brain tried to interject. “I mean… you haven’t even seen me fight or anything, and it seems like you know how to fly the Razor Crest pretty well on your own!” I phrased it as a compliment.

“I have more work to do tomorrow. Come with me,” he said. It didn’t sound like a suggestion. “It won’t be too hard but I know there’ll be guards around the target. The client wants the target alive if possible. You won’t have to get your hands too dirty.”

I swallowed, and thought for a moment. “Alright. I can do that,” I said. “I… I’m a little rusty. I haven’t shot in ages. But I can do that.”

He nodded. I could imagine he was smiling a bit under his helmet, but I’ll never know for sure. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night, Mando,” I said, turning to leave and head back to my room.

“Good night, Thessa.” Butterflies again. I went back upstairs and changed from the jacket into an old, worn out shirt. My face felt like it was on fire. Did the Mandalorian who walked into my town just offer me another job? What about my job here? I didn’t really have any ties to this town, not personally, but I’d been here for a while since the rebellion and sort of made myself a local. The person who actually owns the inn, Cordes, could definitely handle the inn themself, they had for years before I showed up, but at the same time I’d put quite a bit of work into it. Why would I leave it all for a _crush?_ Possibly to just be a glorified babysitter for the kid! I sighed, digging through a drawer for my blaster and holster. I adjusted my grip on it and looked down the sights. Still in good condition.

Well, I guess that it’s happening. One way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed this. I intend on updating this as often as I can, but don't expect a normal schedule from me. I'm a busy college student also working a full time job, so hopefully the almost 15,000 words I wrote by accident can keep you busy for a while :) If you have questions or requests or anything, u can find me at spacegayofficial.tumblr.com !


	2. The First Job

This brings us to where we began. The job started off well enough. We brought the kid to the ship, put him in with plenty of things to keep him busy and nothing to get into, then went to a shady cantina on the edge of town. I’d never been in this particular one, and just from the outside I could see why. Run down, dirty, generally uninviting. I looked over at Mando who looked down at a blinking tracking fob, then up at me, and nodded.

We went in. The several patrons who were chatting among themselves silenced at our arrival. Well, _his_ arrival. Beskar armor will outshine an innkeeper in black clothes with a blaster in a holster around her waist she hasn’t shot in months, maybe years, any day of the week.

The two exchanged words. I kept a careful eye on the people immediately around the target—no doubt the guards Mando mentioned. One had his hand near his blaster. I placed mine near my own. I heard footsteps behind me, and I slowly turned. My back was to Mando, facing the new adversary who had entered the playing field. Again, likely another lackey for the target. I smiled at him politely, like I wouldn’t shoot him in the head if he made any move to start trouble.

Then things went south. The target attempted to shoot Mando, which didn’t end well for him. He slumped to the ground with a shot directly between the eyes. I drew my blaster at some point during the exchange, and took down the guard standing directly in front of me who had drawn his own weapon.

“Get down, behind that table!” Mando ordered. We flung a table up as cover and got behind it. We picked off the remaining guards, the uninvolved patrons of the dirty venue fleeing as they got the chance to. Once both of us thought the coast was clear, we nodded to each other and got up, going around the perimeter of the building, looking for any remaining guards.

“The fact they didn’t just quit when their source of income was dead worries me,” I commented.

“Could be nothing,” Mando replied. I could’ve sworn there was almost hope in is voice that it was, in fact, nothing.

“I hope you’re right,” I said, turning around behind the bar. And there was a guard. Still alive, barely. With a detonator. “ _Mando, get down!”_ I shouted, diving around the other side of the bar and covering my head as the explosives blew and part of the building went up in flames.

My ears were ringing as I came to. I wasn’t immediately in pain, but I couldn’t get up. Why couldn’t I get up? I turned my head and realized a burning beam was pinning me down, a heavy structural one, too. I cursed, and yelled out. It was making it hard to breathe, and the panic setting in didn’t help. I knew this was a bad idea. I knew it was a terrible idea! Why did I ever agree to do this? The pain set in and it was blinding, hot and sharp. Tears welled in my eyes, and I struggled to try and get out from under the beam. My arms just couldn’t push hard enough. I cursed again, slamming my fist against the ground. I was about to just give up, but then I heard him.

“ _Thessa!_ Thessa are you okay?” Mando shouted, running over to me and lifting the beam up just enough so I could wriggle out from under it.

“Shit…” I groaned in pain, getting on my hands and knees. My ribs hurt. My back had been badly burned no doubt. “I… I’m…” I sighed, holding my head in a hand. “I’m okay. I’m alive.”

“Let’s get out of here. You’re badly wounded.” Despite the modulator he sounded genuinely concerned. “Can you walk?”

I reached out a hand and he helped me up. I held onto his hand maybe a little longer than absolutely necessary. I felt a blush come on again. “I… yeah, I think…” I took a step, but stumbled. He grabbed me and put my arm over his shoulder, causing me to hiss as the burned flesh on my back shifted.

“Thanks,” I said.

“I’m sorry this happened. It was supposed to be an easy job.”

I smiled. “It’s okay. Stuff doesn’t happen the way it’s supposed to more often than not. You learn to go with the flow eventually.”

We started walking back to his ship, but as we left the burning remains of the former cantina, another red blinking light caught both our eyes. I grabbed onto the wall to steady myself as Mando reached down to pick it up. He studied it for a minute before something clicked in his head.

“The kid. We need to go,” he said, promptly smashing it to bits before resuming his position under my arm helping me walk.

“The kid?” I asked, almost shocked. What did that little green creature have to do with this?

“He… was a bounty of mine. Clearly things didn’t go as intended. But the client still wants him, so we just have to keep moving,” Mando explained. “Which means we need to get off this planet.”

“Well, that doesn’t give me a lot of—ouch—time to think about this,” I teased. We went about halfway back to the ship before he paused walking.

He slid out from under my arm but still kept me supported, looking at me right in the eye. Or so I assumed. Again, can’t see his face.

“Do you want to come with us? I understand if you don’t. But you held your own in there, and I could use someone of your ability. You’d likely be paid more than at the inn.” If I didn’t know better I’d almost think he sounded desperate.

Maybe it was the pain I was in making me loopy, but I felt a little bit bolder. I put a hand out to touch the side of his helmet, where his cheek might be, fingertips tracing the defined concave creases in the metal. Maker I hope I didn’t remember this later. I took my hand back quickly. “I… yeah. Yeah, I’ll come. We’ll do this.”

“Thank you, Thessa. You’ll be a great help.”

“Let me go… go back to the inn to grab some things. Okay?” I asked. “Will the kid be alright?”

He nodded, and started to walk in the direction of the inn. “The ship’s on lockdown. Only person who’ll be able to get in is me.”

“Okay. Let’s do this then.”

We made it back to the inn where I gathered some essentials and put it into a bag. Normally I would sling this across my back but this was a bad idea at present. I grimaced as I attempted to pick it up, but Mando swooped in and picked it up for me. As we left, I grabbed my jacket from the coat rack. _This was happening._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi at spacegayofficial.tumblr.com !


	3. Bandages and Awkward Confessions

We got back to the ship and immediately took off. I was leaned against the side of the hold, unable to sit down with my back against the back of a chair. I was watching the child take a nap in his little alcove. Eventually, Mando descended from the cockpit and started digging through a crate and pulled out some medical supplies. He set them down on top of the crate, and then took off his cape, holding it out to me. “I need to patch up your back. I need to you take off your shirt.”

He said it so matter-of-factly, and I knew logically it wasn’t that big of a deal, but boy did it make me blush. I turned nervously and peeled it off along with my bra (or the burnt remnants thereof), wincing as I had to put my hands above my head again, the burnt skin on my back complaining loudly. I snatched his cape from him to cover myself up. He took a step forward and examined the wound.

“You can sit if you want,” he said, turning back to his medical supplies and picking up a cloth to clean the wound with. I sat on the floor, crossing my legs and leaning forward slightly, still clutching his cape to my chest.

“It doesn’t feel good,” I said. “Burns are probably my least favorite injury. Shot, stabbed, cut, no problem. But burns?” I shook my head. The cool damp cloth made contact with the injury and I hissed. “Like I said.”

“It doesn’t look good. You already have some blisters,” he said, continuing to clean it up. “Is this okay?”

I nodded. “Don’t have too much of a choice.”

He continued to clean it up, and once it was clean, he sprayed bacta on the wound, and that stung to high heaven. “Oh, fuck!” I groaned, my teeth clenching and eyes screwing shut. “Ah—wish I was saying  _ that  _ under better circumstances…”

Did I just say that out loud?

He continued on as if I hadn’t said a thing, which I was thankful for. He sprayed something else on it, this one didn’t feel bad, but actually cooled the wound somewhat. He began placing bandages over it, then paused and grabbed something else. “Okay, I need to wrap some gauze around you to keep the bandages in place. Can you… set the cape down?” He hesitated as he asked, knowing it was maybe a lot to ask. I once again felt heat coming to my cheeks.

I nodded and placed it down. He pressed the end of the gauze to one side of the bandages, then wrapped it over my shoulder, across my chest, and back around again. He was being careful to not look over my shoulder at my bare chest. He did this a handful of times until the bandages were securely in place and the gauze was pinned down. He nearly had his arms around me. I wished he would close the gap, but said nothing.

He turned and grabbed my bag of belongings from the table and handed it to me. “I’m done. You should rest. That was a lot for a day.”

I reached in for a shirt and put one on quickly, teeth clenching in pain as my skin shifted yet again, and turned to face Mando, handing his cape back. “Thank you. I’m sorry if I… overstepped. I didn’t mean— I mean, when I touched your helmet earlier, and the dad comment yesterday, and the comment just now, I just. Guess maybe I… I don’t want to offend, and I know I’m here for a job, not to—”

“Thessa.” He stopped my rambling, and held a hand out to help me up off the floor. “It’s okay.”

I took his hand and carefully stood up, and kept his hand in mine. “You just… I would say fascinate me, but that makes you sound like a science experiment. You’re not, you’re a real person.” I placed my other hand on his pauldron. “Thank you for patching me up.”

He placed a gloved hand on my cheek and my eyes went wide for a split second before leaning into it. “You’re more than welcome.” We stayed like this for a moment before he stepped away, but kept his hand in mine to pull me along with him. “Let me show you where you can sleep. I’ll sleep in the cockpit. You can take my bed.”

“I— what? I couldn’t possibly, I can just set up some blankets on the floor out here, you—” I sputtered. “The  _ cockpit? _ That can’t possibly be comfortable!”

He just shrugged. “I’ve done it many times before. I insist, you need a good rest after that injury. It’s the least I can do right now after all you’ve done for me.”

I sighed. “Okay. Fine. Just for now, though. I won’t take up your bed this entire time,” I said sternly.

Again, I could’ve sworn I heard him laugh. “Alright. Here,” he said, pushing open a side door into a small room with a bed, a small shelf of books, and a dresser. “Get some rest. If you need anything, just let me know.” Mirroring my words again.

I stepped closer to him and went up on my tiptoes, pressing a kiss to his helmet where his cheek would be. “Thanks. Maybe…” I stopped. “Yeah. Just… um. Thank you.”

He nodded that way he does and stepped out, leaving me to my thoughts. My mind was racing with them again, wondering if what just happened actually happened. If I was losing my mind or maybe actually died in that explosion. But no, I think he really did put his hand to my face, I really did make a suggestive comment to him, I really did just kiss his sort-of-cheek. But he isn’t running away. He’s still here. I’m still here.

I crawled into the bed laying on my stomach, which was still bruised but not nearly as painful as my back, and sighed. I was exhausted. The adrenaline rush of realizing you’re pinned down under a burning beam really does take it out of you. And so just as quickly as I had laid down, I fell asleep, the scent of his blankets and pillows filling my head with thoughts of him I hoped he didn’t mind me having.

I woke up the next morning to rustling around in the room. I had ended up on my side in the night, which was fine, but rolling onto my back was a mistake. It hurt, and as I sat up to relieve that pain, I realized just how sore I was. I groaned and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Mando was digging around in a drawer looking for something. He came to the conclusion that it wasn’t there, and shut the drawer. As my groan hit his ears, he turned to look at me.

“Good morning,” he said, his voice through the modulator more comforting than ever. “Did you sleep well?”

I nodded, yawning. “Yeah. It’s… really comfy. I’m not sure I want to trade it for the floor,” I joked. “Looks like we’ll just have to share or something.” For fucks sake, Thessa, shut your mouth!

“If you’re hungry there’s food on the table in the hold,” he said, ignoring my comment likely for both our benefits. “How’s your back? We need to change the bandages on it.”

I shrugged. “It’s still a giant burn on my back. It doesn’t feel good,” I responded. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, groaning again as my body protested somewhat. “Let me eat then we can change the bandages, okay?”

He nodded, and I stepped out of the room and into the hold. There was a modest breakfast—some preserved fruit, bread, and some fruit juice—set out on the table. I sat down, carefully a few inches forward of the back of the chair, and began to eat. The child climbed out of his spot in the alcove Mando had set aside for him and walked over to me.

“Good morning little one! Have you eaten yet?” I asked, leaning over to pick him up, wincing as I did. I set him in my lap and gave him a piece of bread to munch on, which he did happily as I ate the rest of my breakfast. I finished up and stood, taking the kid with me. “Alright, kiddo, I gotta go grab a change of clothes and get some help re-dressing this burn. We’ll play soon, okay?” I said, setting him back in his alcove. He cooed at me, seemingly content with my explanation, and I went back into Mando’s bedroom where he was still searching for something.

“Anything I can help you find?” I asked. “Not that I’d be too much help. I’ve been conscious on the ship for, what, 20 minutes?”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing important. The child just likes to take things and put them places that don’t make sense,” he explained. “If you see a little silver ball with a hole in its side, let me know.”

I smiled. “So he likes collecting little shiny things?”

“Seems like it. Let me go get more bandages and we’ll replace those,” he said, stepping from the room momentarily. I took that time to grab a change of clothes from my bag and set them aside. He came back with more medical supplies, and set them on a small table next to his bed. I sat in the center of it, removing my shirt again, this time slightly more comfortable with the gesture, and bringing the blanket up to my chest.

He immediately got to work, sitting on the edge of the bed, peeling away the old bandages and beginning to place new ones.

“I appreciate you taking care of this,” I said, looking back over my shoulder at him. “And I hope you know I’m… not trying to make you uncomfortable. My mouth just… says things even if my brain tries to stop it sometimes,” I said jokingly, inhaling sharply as he placed pressure on a particularly sore spot.

“You don’t make me uncomfortable,” he responded. There might have been a slight smile in his tone. I don’t know for sure.

“It’s just. I don’t know. You’re…” I trailed off. “I… would be lying if I said I… didn’t… kinda wish that I could’ve actually kissed your cheek.”

I fought the urge to bury my face into the blanket I held to my chest. I felt him pause for just a moment before going back to the bandages. Then he…  _ joked? _ “Just the cheek, huh?”

I was caught off guard by his comment. “W-well, I mean, I don’t… want to  _ presume _ anything, and sometimes people just kiss people on the cheek, it’s a thing, right, like as a greeting, it’s not—”

“It’s okay. I just want to make sure you know what you’re getting into.” Well that sounded ominous. “Can you remove the blanket?”

I let it fall, and he began to re-wrap gauze around me. “Well, what am I getting into, then? I’m already on the ship, here to help you, I’m ready to fight, and I’ll do my best at it. What else could I need to worry about?”

He continued wrapping the gauze. “You know I can’t take the helmet off if you can see. I can’t show you my face.” He cut the gauze strip and pinned it down. “That’s sometimes important to people.”

“Mando, I’d never ever ask you to do anything you weren’t comfortable with.” I took the blanket back up to my chest and turned to face him. “I want to be with  _ you _ , not… bits and parts. The entire thing. I got butterflies in my stomach when you walked into my inn, armor and all.”

His hand reached out again, to my face. I placed my hand over it and leaned into it. Even through the thick layer of leather, he felt warm. “Thank you.”

I nodded. “I had a feeling I knew what I was getting into. I can now say with confidence I wasn’t kidding about sharing the bed, by the way.”

He laughed softly. I knew he did this time, and a smile spread across my face. It was a beautiful sound. “That sounds okay to me.”

I pulled him forward into a hug. He seemed… tense, at first, like he wasn’t sure about it, but we both melted into it. His armor was cold against my skin. I wondered briefly if he took it off to rest. He must, right? It can’t be comfortable. We stayed like this for a while, and he pulled away. I wished we could do that forever.

“I’m going to get dressed. I’ll meet you up in the cockpit, I need to know where all the controls are in order to fly this thing,” I said, smiling.

“Sounds good.” He stepped out.

That definitely happened.

I got dressed and went out into the hold, double checking on the child who was investigating a brightly painted toy contently, then went up to the cockpit. I did this with some difficulty as my back did not love me having my arms above my head to climb this ladder. Once I was up, Mando swiveled around and stood from the pilot’s chair and gestured for me to sit. I swiveled back around and motioned placing my hands on certain controls like a dress rehearsal for actually flying.

“It’s definitely pre-Empire, but a ship’s a ship, huh?” I commented. “I had to fly some older stuff in the rebellion but I was mainly in X-wings. Kinda nice to have… y’know… legroom.”

“This ship’s done me very well over the years,” he said.

“Hopefully with both of us here to take care of it, she’ll continue to do you very well,” I responded, investigating some of the defenses and weaponry available. I went to reach for a lever and noticed it had bare screw threads on the top rather than a knob. “Ah. This must be what the little one stole.”

“I don’t know what it is about that specific knob, but he keeps taking it,” Mando commented. There wasn’t a hint of frustration in his voice, but plenty of what I assumed was adoration. That child could stab him and I’m sure he’d still care for him just as deeply.

I swiveled around again. He was standing over me still, but I found this less intimidating than I might have just a few days ago. “Alright. If we’re in a pinch I can definitely fly this thing no problem. And with your knowledge of this specific ship and mine of ships in general we should be able to keep her running for as long as we need her to.”

He nodded. “Good. That’s what we need.”

I got up and descended back into the hold, and going back to the child to keep him entertained for a while. As we played, I glanced in the general direction of the cockpit. Maybe that was a pretty good idea after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi at spacegayofficial.tumblr.com !


	4. Sharing the Bed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok now we're in smut territory it's all good folks

Later on that night, once I had managed to really get the child tired and put him to bed, I went back into Mando’s room and changed into some bedclothes. As I was stretching and crawling into bed, Mando came in.

“My offer still stands,” I said, patting the bed next to me. “Plenty of room.”

His smile came through in his tone. “I hoped it did. How’s your back?”

“Better tonight, actually. Not quite as painful. I can put some pressure on it when I sit or lay down now,” I said.

He came and sat on the edge of the bed. I placed a hand over his gloved one, and looked him as close to in the eye as I could get. My other hand went to caress his helmet where his cheek would be.

“There’s… another thing that you should know. If this goes in that direction,” he said.

“Oh? What’s that?” I asked.

“I tend to  _ play rough _ .” His sentence was delivered with a sort of gravel that his voice didn’t usually carry, but it made my heart flutter and something to stir within me.

A smile spread over my lips. “Rough, huh?” I could handle that. “Sounds dangerous. And fun,” I said, my hand going from his cheek to his pauldron.

“I can tone it down if need be. But you said you wanted all of me,” he explained, almost teasing. Now I needed a demonstration.

“Well, wanna give me a little taste of what you’re talking about?” I asked, my grin not leaving my face, suggestiveness dripping from my voice. “Maybe this is my opportunity to curse under better circumstances.”

His hand went up to my cheek, then down my neck, and just teasingly close to my breast before pulling away. He stood, and walked a few paces away, still facing me. “Get undressed.” This wasn’t a suggestion or a question. It was an order.

I did. I slowly removed my shirt, slightly easier this evening but still not terribly comfortable, thankfully no bra to fuss with since I was already in bedclothes, and then my pants. I hesitated a bit before peeling off my panties, but I did, and sat on the edge of the bed, bare before him. He was still in his armor, intimidatingly hovering over me, watching my every move. The contrast of my nakedness with him being entirely concealed did something to me.

He stepped back in my direction and reached a hand out to my ribs where I had been pressed into the ground hard enough to leave bruises. He traced his gloved fingers over the purple spots, studying them. He looked over me again, and barely above a whisper, spoke. “Beautiful.” I smiled a bit, placing my hand over his as he brushed across my skin, leaving goosebumps as he did. Then he pulled away, much to my disdain.

He went and sat in a chair near his dresser, placing his arms up over the back, tilting his head back and to the side slightly in a way that made him look bigger, more… dominating. It was the hottest thing I’d seen him do to date. And I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last time.

“Touch yourself.”

The command came and I found myself scrambling back to the center of the bed. As shy as I felt around him, especially now, I didn’t want to second guess or question him. He was in control of the situation. I wanted to please. My legs spread and my hand snaked down my body to my pussy. I let out a slight gasp as I brushed over my clit, then to my entrance, realizing just how wet I had gotten in the past few minutes. I slipped back up to my clit, rubbing soft circles around it, part of me wishing it was the man across from me who was doing this. I imagined he was.

“Wet already?” He quipped, shifting slightly, tilting his head to the other side side. “You must really want this.”

“I do,” I said in a breathy tone, my eyes going over his body as I continued my little dance. My body was already alight, soft moans escaping my lips as I swept a finger across my sensitive bundle of nerves, hips rolling slightly as I dipped one, two fingers into myself, wishing it was him still.

“What are you thinking about?”

“How much I wish it was you doing this,” I responded, lost in my own ministrations as my head rolled back, my fingers searching for that sensitive spot inside as my other hand came to join to continue to work on my clit. I let out another moan, my eyes closing briefly. I was closer to the edge with each passing second, more and more desperate to go over.

“You’re even more beautiful like this.”

“Mm… thanks,” I responded, smiling.

I was getting closer, and closer, and closer… and right on the edge… then…

“Stop.” Another command came. Every fiber of my being told me to continue, so I merely slowed, desperate to go over the edge. He leaned forward and snatched one of my hands away from what I was doing, causing me to gasp in surprise and my face to flush. “I said,  _ stop. _ ” I swallowed. Normally this would be terrifying, but now it was just intoxifying. I pouted a bit, teasing him. He stood, beginning to remove pieces of his armor. The vambraces, the pauldrons, the chestplate, each piece set down with care on top of the dresser. Despite being entirely naked myself, masturbating for him, this felt especially risqué. Once everything was off, he picked something up that I couldn’t quite discern. He came over to the bed, looming over me even as he joined me on it. He took my hand in his, bringing it up to my mouth. I knew exactly what he wanted. I parted my lips, looking him directly in the eyes, or as close as I could get, and took my fingers into my mouth, and licked my wetness from them, the fire between my legs continuing to grow. After a moment of this, I removed them, waiting for his next move.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

He took what he had picked up—a thick piece of black cloth—and took it in both hands, holding it to my eyes. My eyes fluttered shut and I moved my head forward, wordless consent to him tying it around my head, blocking out everything.

“Can you see anything?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Not a thing.”

“Good. Can you lay back?” he asked.

I nodded and did just that. He guided my head towards a pillow, and I shifted so my burn didn’t cause me too much discomfort. I heard fabric slip somewhere near him. Then I felt what it was.

He traced his ungloved, bare fingers along my collarbone, down to a breast, brushing a thumb over my nipple which hardened for him. He did the same to the other, and pinched one, not harshly but not softly either, causing me to moan softly and press my chest into his touch. He ran both hands down my hips, goosebumps breaking out as he did. Then his weight shifted, and he straddled over me. There was a pause, a quiet thunk, and he leaned down, hands over my breasts again. I could feel him hard against my lower stomach. My heart fluttered as I realized what the thunk was.  _ His helmet. _ Lips crashed against mine and my arms wrapped around him, pushing myself deeper into his kiss. It was sloppy and rough. He bit my lips as he got the chance. 

I pulled away. “I thought you said…”

“Shh, I said I couldn’t show you my face,” he clarified. Then went back to kissing me, tongue pressing into my mouth, mine pressing back into his.

After several minutes of this he began to kiss his way down my jaw, to my neck. I tilted my head to give him more access. He found a sensitive spot, causing me to gasp, and nibbled there. Then down my throat, then my collarbone. Then his tongue swept across an already hard nipple, making me shudder. He sucked and nibbled there for a moment before doing the same to the other one. He then worked his way down my stomach, pausing just before exactly where I wanted him. My hands ran through his hair—curly, I think—and pulled ever so slightly. “Mando…”

“Ask nicely, and maybe I’ll give you what you want,” he said, his voice smooth without the modulator. It was rich like chocolate.

“Mm… please…”

“Please what?”

“Please… I wanna feel your mouth on me… eating me out... please, Mando.”

“ _ Good girl. _ ”

The words alone made me moan slightly, but not as loud as when his tongue flicked over my swollen clit and two of his bare fingers worked their way into me, taking no time at all to find that sweet spot, curling against it relentlessly. “Mando!” I nearly shouted, definitely pulling on his hair at this point, my breath ragged as he sucked on my sensitive bud, sending shockwaves through my body. It didn’t take long before I was teetering on the edge of orgasm, gripping into Mando’s hair like it was the only thing keeping me there with him. My walls tightened around his fingers, hinting at my closeness, moaning a bit louder. But then he stopped. I was again left unsatisfied. I let out a whimper. “No… please…”

“Ah, but you only asked for me to eat you out, Thessa. Isn’t that what I did?” he asked, that teasing tone in his voice thicker than ever. “Try again.”

“Mando, please, make me cum, I wanna cum,” I begged, desperation in my voice that I didn’t even intend to be there. He really did have a power over me that I didn’t anticipate.

He came back up to eye level, kissing me again. I could taste myself on him, a reminder this was real. He again took one of my hands in his, and guided it down between us, where he freed himself from his pants, and put my hand around his cock. He let out a moan of his own. One of the most beautiful noises I’d ever heard. I stroked along his length, and thumbed over the head. He was thick, and I craved to have him inside me. I guided him forward, lining him up with my entrance, sliding just a bit inside before letting him take over. He hummed as we connected. I bit my lip, one of my hands going to tangle in his hair again, the other going around his back. He still had on his clothes, but without his armor, he felt… even more real, warm, rough, alive.

With very little ceremony, he roughly slammed into me, causing me to moan out again, louder, my hips bucking up into his. My burn didn’t like that shift and I hissed. He stopped.

“You okay?” he asked, genuinely concerned, pulling away from me somewhat and brushing a strand of hair from my face.

I nodded. “I’m fine. Shifted on my burn wrong.”

“Good. I want you to enjoy this,” he said, his voice a growl, but I could tell he was grinning.

He started thrusting, rubbing against all the right spots, eliciting moans and sighs from me as he did. It didn’t take long for me to start climbing the mountain to a climax again. At some point I wrapped one of my legs around his waist, pulling him into me. He grunted and groaned as he went at it, my walls tightening around him spurring him on. Even though I couldn’t see anyway, my eyes were screwed shut, lost in the sensation of us being here together, entwined, drowning in a sea of pleasure. I hummed and the tension building inside me couldn’t be held back anymore. “Mando… I’m…”

“ _ Ask permission. _ ”

I shuddered. “Please, can I cum? Let me cum, Mando, please,” I begged again, breathier, focused on the oncoming crash.

He seemed satisfied with that, and kissed me, biting my lip again, then growled in my ear. “ _ Cum for me, Thessa. _ ”

And I did. “Oh,  _ fuck! _ ” There it was. Under  _ much _ better circumstances. My walls squeezed around his member deliciously, eliciting another moan from his lips. My hands had a death grip in his hair, pulling on the curls as I rode out the aftershocks of the orgasm he’d just brought me to. But, even so, he didn’t stop his thrusting. Stars flashed in my vision behind the blindfold. “Mando!” I said, a hoarse attempt at a shout. But I soon understood why he had continued; he was teetering on the edge of his own orgasm.

“Thessa!” he matched my tone as he said my name, cumming in me and riding out his own orgasm for a few more thrusts. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing him say my name like that.

As he slipped out of me, causing me to whimper slightly and the sudden feeling of emptiness, I let my leg fall from around him and untangled my fingers from his hair, and replaced them on his cheeks. I pulled him forward for a kiss, which he obliged, much more gently this time. Passionate, sweet, no teeth. I could keep doing this for days. Eventually he adjusts and falls to my side, and I turn and face him, still unable to see. I reach down in search of one of his hands which had found purchase on my hip. I took it in mine, beginning to feel over it, studying it with my touch. Calloused, scarred, but warm and comforting all the same. These hands have worked hard and done many things, but they’re caring, and…  _ talented. _ I smiled softly.

“That was… amazing,” I said quietly, tracing my fingertips over the lines of his palms.

“It was.  _ You _ were,” he responded, his free hand coming up to run his fingers through my hair. It gave me chills.

“I assume that’s just a taste, too?” I asked, curious. “I’m guessing you went easy on me because of this inconvenience on my back,” I joked.

“Mm. It’ll be a little more fun once you’re healed,” he said. I could definitely hear the smile on his lips this time. I still wasn’t over how is voice sounded without the modulator. He sat up, and got off the bed. I frowned, but knew it was necessary. I heard the door open and was confused he had left, but I heard it shut again and the bed shifted. He pulled me gently back onto my back, careful of my burn, and gently pulled my legs apart. A damp cloth came into contact with my skin, cleaning me up.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling.

He hummed in response. I heard metal scrape against tabletop, and I knew he was putting his helmet back on. Then fabric. The gloves. He reached back and removed my blindfold, and I was greeted with his helmet. I smiled at him and reached for his hand, pulling him down next to me. I wrapped my arms around him, and placed my head right on his chest. He was warm, and comfortable, like we’d been made to lay together like this. His gloved hand came around and pulled me closer into him.

“Good night,” I mumbled.

“Good night.” Even though his voice sounded modulated still, the edge was taken off by my closeness and his words rumbling in his chest against me. We fell asleep like this, for the first time of many.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi at spacegayofficial.tumblr.com !


	5. Getting Personal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is unresolved trauma territory. There's a depiction of a flashback, so be forewarned.

At some point during the night, I inhaled sharply and bolted upright from my sleep. I knew I had just had a nightmare, but… what was it about? Was it…? Before I had a chance to think about it, I realized Mando had bolted just as fast, looking at me. I could tell he was concerned, even though he had his helmet on.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, hushed.

“Yeah. Sorry. Bad dream, I think,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”

He took my hand in his and squeezed, pulling me back down to bed. He ran a gloved hand over my cheek, pushing some strands of hair away, then pulled me back into his chest. “I don’t know if this is what you need to hear, but you’re safe with me,” he said.

I smiled. “I’m not sure if it is either, but I’m thankful for it all the same.” I drifted back to sleep, restful for the remainder of the night.

* * *

The morning came, and I rolled over in bed, slightly more careful of my burn this time. Mando wasn’t there. I frowned. _Damn early risers,_ I thought to myself, frown replaced with a small smile. Got up, pulled back on my previously discarded bedclothes, and walked out into the hold, seeing Mando and the child sitting like they were having a very serious conversation. Well, like Mando was having a very serious conversation; the child was happily eating a sweet roll for breakfast. My heart swelled at the sight.

“That’s not a very healthy breakfast for a growing boy,” I commented, partially sarcastic, coming to join them at the small table.

“He insisted,” Mando replied, turning to look at me. His hand reached out across the table. I met it half way with mine, our fingers interlocking. The child looked at me and cooed happily.

I grinned at him. “Is that your blessing for us?” I asked, reaching out my other hand to pat the little one on the head. He gurgled happily in response. “I guess that’s a yes.”

“Well, that’s a relief, I’m not sure what I would’ve done without it,” Mando replied, squeezing my hand slightly. I could definitely hear his smile this time. “We should change your bandages again.”

“You’re probably right. I’m not quite hungry yet, so if you’d like we can take care of it after I take a quick shower. I got… sweaty last night,” I said, standing.

“Okay. I’ll grab the supplies I need.”

I went back to the bedroom, digging through my things to find a change of clothes, which I set aside, and a towel. I went to the refresher, stripping down again and turning the warm water on. Not too hot, so as not to aggravate my burn any more. As I let the water get hot, I took off my old bandages and threw them away, scowling a bit at the blood dried on them. I stepped in, washed up taking care not to touch my burn too much, then stepped out. I dried my hair quickly and wrapped myself in a towel. I looked in the mirror, studying my reflection for a moment. A couple of scars on my cheek reminded me of my former post as a rebel pilot again. I wondered for a moment about the nightmare I had the night before that I couldn’t remember clearly. I shook my head, not wanting to go there again. I returned to Mando’s room, where he was waiting with fresh bandages set on the table.

“Y’know, clean hair is one of the best feelings in the galaxy,” I said, joining him on the bed and letting my towel fall, no longer caring much about modesty around him, giving him access to my burn. “Yours… probably doesn’t stay clean for long, huh?”

He chuckled softly, beginning to place new bandages over the wound. “No, it doesn’t. This armor is new, however, and it keeps me a bit cooler than it used to.”

“So instead of dripping it’s just damp,” I teased.

“Exactly.” He paused. “Can I ask you about these scars on your back? Not the burn. Lower than that.” He traced his gloved fingers over the ones he was talking about.

I swallowed. My heart started racing. I hadn’t even thought about those in a long time. _Flashes between trees. Burning. Blood._ “I… crashed.” _I crawled from the cockpit only to fall with a thud on the ground. It knocked the wind out of me. I groaned as the air returned to my lungs. Blood. Where was all this blood coming from? Another bang. Too close for comfort. Scrambled back. Curse in pain. Feel around my back, pull out a shard of metal without thinking. Look up at the new crash. Dead pilot. Impaled on… something. Knew him. His name was Zech. Good guy._ “It was… a bad place to crash.” _Stormtroopers. Shit. Scramble to hide, too late. A shot grazes my back. I pull my blaster. Funny what adrenaline and a will to survive will do. I drop every stormtrooper that comes within 10 feet of me._ “I was… hurt. Pretty bad. I’m surprised I survived. I’m _lucky_ I survived. Another ship crashed extremely close to me. If I’d been five feet from where I’d fallen, I would’ve died. One’s a blaster shot, one’s a shard of metal. Miracle the metal missed my spine. Bent in just the right place.” I reached my hand up and traced along the L shape just to the right of my spine.

It was at this point I realized I was crying. How long had I been crying? Mando had just wrapped the gauze around me once, but stopped, turning me to face him. “Are you okay? You look pale.”

“I’m fine. I just… wasn’t expecting you to ask. And I haven’t thought about it in a long time,” I said, avoiding looking him in where his eyes would be. My brow was furrowed, as if I was thinking. Reality was I couldn’t wipe the look of Zech’s lifeless face, locked in terror, from my mind. Mando wiped the tears from my face.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said, calmly, taking my hand in his again.

I shook my head. “It’s okay. It was bound to happen at some point or another.” But the tears kept coming, and the panic set in. I started breathing hard, and my hand went to my chest. _So many damn stormtroopers._

“Thessa?” Mando asked. I didn’t respond. Breathing was getting too difficult. “Thessa. It’s okay, I’m right here. Nothing here can hurt you. You’re safe. I need to finish wrapping this gauze, can I do that?”

I looked at him, almost surprised. Despite his literally steely exterior he was so soft and caring when he wanted to be. My breathing slowed slightly. I nodded. “Yes,” I managed to gasp out.

He moved to my side, staying in my field of vision as he continued wrapping gauze around me, just a few more times. He pinned it in place. I tried my best to focus on what he was doing, not what was going on in my head. At some point I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Mando’s hand went to mine and squeezed it gently. I turned and hugged him, still not caring that I was naked in front of him. Thank the Maker those boundaries had been broken.

“Thank you,” I whispered, sniffling a bit.

“Of course. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. Not if it’s going to upset you and make you panic like that,” he said, just as softly.

I nodded. “Okay. Thank you.” We stayed embraced for several minutes, until I had calmed down completely. I took a breath. “Let me get dressed, then maybe we can talk about where we want to go next.”

Mando pulled away. He looked at me for a moment, then spoke. “Din.”

I blinked. “Sorry?”

“Since we’re… sharing personal things. My name is Din. Din Djarin.”

 _Oh._ “I… Din. That’s a wonderful name.” It felt right on my tongue. I smiled, pulling him in for another, shorter hug. “Again, thank you.”

He nodded, then left me to get dressed. Once I was ready, I ascended into the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot’s chair.

“Alright, Din,” I smiled. “Where to?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi at spacegayofficial.tumblr.com !


	6. Started with Sparring

Weeks pass. We’d visited many planets, met many people, had a handful of close calls, but we were working well together and keeping our heads above water. My burn healed well, leaving some dimples of scarring that would no doubt fade with time. I was still having occasional nightmares I couldn’t quite remember, but I knew I wasn’t ready to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering me quite yet.

Mando… _Din_ and I were getting closer, though nothing much more exciting than what happened that first night had transpired. I think he was a little concerned about me with the nightmares and the panic attack I had the day after. Understandable. I also didn’t want to rush _him_ into doing something he wasn’t ready for. So I just patiently waited until he was ready.

One evening, while we were staying on some barely-populated planet to lay low for a few days, Din and I were sparring. I don’t remember exactly whose idea it was, but it came up fairly soon after my burn had healed enough it wasn’t really bothering me anymore. Not only would this kill some time, but it would also get me back up to speed on fighting and keep my skills sharp.

“Din, c’mon, you gotta go a little easy on me, that beskar is not forgiving,” I huffed. He threw a right hook, and I ducked out of the way, landing a kick on his right side in return.

“Real enemy won’t go easy on you,” he responded, grunting at the kick. “Good one.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling, aiming a punch for the area just inside from his pauldron where there was just fabric. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me in, putting me in a loose headlock. “Well that wasn’t it.”

“No, it wasn’t.” I was getting better at telling when he was smiling. I looked up at him and placed a hand on the side of his helmet. “We’re not done yet, Thessa.”

“Aw, I was hoping I could flirt my way out of the situation,” I joked as he let me go, and we went back to slowly circling each other.

“I hope you’re not intending to flirt with anyone else,” Din teased back.

“Not without your consent,” I shrugged. “I dunno, threesome might be hot.”

He shook his head and I smirked a little, trying to get a little closer to him without him landing anything on me. As fast as I could, I stepped forward, placing one foot between his. I knocked him off balance and tackled him to the ground, straddling over him triumphantly.

“Good. But next time,” he said, grabbing me and rolling us over, pinning my arms to the ground above my head, “make sure I can’t do this.”

I bit my lip and grinned up at him, my hips wiggling between his legs. He leaned down. “Be careful. I might have to punish you for that,” he said, hushed, a gloved hand brushing over my neck and shoulder.

“You make it sound like a bad thing,” I responded, cocking my head and giving him a defiant grin. He stopped.

“Be careful what you wish for, Thessa,” he said, letting my hands go and getting off of me, helping me off the ground. “In all seriousness, you’re getting better. Granted most of the people we’re encountering aren’t quite as well armored.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Could work on a few things yet, but practice makes perfect as they say,” I said. I went to walk back up the ramp to the ship. The child was standing just at the top of the ramp, watching us as we practiced. The first time we sparred he was kind of distraught over it, but we managed to explain to him that it was just friendly practice and we weren’t actually fighting. Even though he couldn’t speak to our knowledge, we think he got it.

He babbles happily at us as we walk in to the ship. “You must be getting tired!” I said, scooping him up in my arms. “You spent all day chasing around little critters out here.” In response, he yawned, and I smiled. “That’s what I thought.” I went back to the little one’s alcove, putting him in his little bed and tucking him in some blankets. He snuggled in, and closed his eyes. I shut the door to the alcove to give him some darkness so he could sleep.

I was about to say something and head back to the bedroom, but before I could get all the way to the door, Din had me pinned to the wall with my hands above my head. I gasped, then smiled, and one of his hands went to harshly rub my cunt through my pants. I groaned, grinding into his hand.

“You already want me that bad, hm?” he asked, his hand on my wrists tightening their grip slightly.

“I always want you bad, Din,” I responded, biting my lip.

“Go into the bedroom. Get undressed. Wait for me on the bed. Do not touch yourself. Your pleasure is entirely mine tonight, understand?” he asked. I nodded.

“Yes, Din,” I gasped.

Satisfied, he gave me one last hard rub between my legs, then let me go. I walked to the bedroom, let the door shut behind me, and quickly got undressed, sitting on the edge of my bed with my legs crossed. I could already feeling myself getting wet just thinking about where this was going. He hadn’t started anything quite like this before. A few moments passed, and he returned, holding a pair of cuffs that would typically go on bounties. I eyed them curiously.

“I don’t have a bounty on my head now, do I?” I asked, smiling a bit, making it clear I was joking.

“No,” he responded. “But I’m still going to use them on you. Hands out.”

I obeyed, holding them out in front of me. He cuffed me, and pushed me back on the bed, hands above my head again. He climbed over me, his gloved hands tracing over my skin, down my sides to my hips and back up my stomach. He grabbed one breast harshly, and I gasped.

“You ask permission to cum. You do not touch yourself. If you break those rules, I’m going to spank you,” he growled. It sounded harsher than it probably was with the modulator. It was still incredibly hot, and I could feel more warmth pool between my legs. “And I’m already thinking I’m going to for being such a tease earlier.” He punctuated this by pinching my nipple, hard. I gasped, my chest pressing up into his touch. “But, most importantly, if you need me to stop, just say _ke’pare._ ”

“I… what does that mean?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“It means ‘wait’ in Mando’a,” he explained, pausing his hands on my body. “I’ll know you need me to stop what I’m doing.”

I nodded. “ _Ke’pare…_ ” I said, testing the word in my mouth. “Okay. Got it.”

“Your accent isn’t bad,” he commented. I could hear his smile in his voice.

“What can I say, I have a pretty good teacher,” I grinned back.

He continued to trace lines over my torso, then took one hand between my legs and ran one finger through my slit, rubbing over my clit, making me moan quietly. He pulled his hand back away and held it out, investigating it. “You get so wet so fast. We’ll see how you like this.”

He climbed off of me and tugged my arm, pulling me to sit up. He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled me over his lap. He still had his armor on, and the cold beskar pressing into my body made my skin break out in goosebumps. I blushed—for the first time in quite a while. I had been significantly less flustered around him lately. Clearly bold enough to straight up tease him. But this had me at a clear disadvantage.

He placed one hand on the small of my back, and grabbed a handful of my ass with the other. I pushed back into his hand, still riding the last bits of the teasing wave even though I knew exactly what he was doing. “Such a tease,” he said, feigning exasperation. “Five seems fair, don’t you think?”

“Do I get any say in that?” I asked. His hand left my ass, then came down, hard. The collision stung, more than I had expected. Must be the leather in his gloves? I gasped, my back arching just slightly. The heat between my legs only grew. He stopped and gently rubbed over the spot he made contact with.

“No, not really,” he said. I could still hear that smirk in his voice. Part of me wished I could kiss it off him, but I was sure I would get my chance sooner or later. The second spank came, on the other cheek, just as hard as the last. I gasped again, but the gasp teetered on a moan. He continued this, alternating sides until he got to his fifth, at which point my head was hanging and I straight up moaned at the strike. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was dripping right into his lap. This situation had me so turned on, I was convinced that if he continued I could’ve climaxed from the spanking alone. I wasn’t the only one turned on by the situation, however; even though he still had his armor on, I could feel he was growing hard against my tummy. As he rubbed my ass after the fifth spank, he repeated his gesture of rubbing a single finger through my slit. I moaned again, with a tinge of frustration.

“And that just made you wetter,” he said, unceremoniously pulling me off of his lap and back onto the bed. “Lay back.”

I did just that, scooting to the center of the bed, laying down and waiting. Din got up and grabbed the blindfold we’d been using. He came back, placed it over my eyes, and tied it behind my head.

“Can you see anything?”

“Not a thing.”

“Good.”

This exchange had happened more times than I could count, but it was necessary. I heard him methodically take his armor off, set his helmet down on the table, followed by him slipping off his gloves. Maybe one day I could at least see that part. I shivered a bit at the thought, as if watching him take off his gloves was the same as getting a full blown striptease from the man. Finally, he crawled on top of me in the bed. I was expecting him to come to face level and for him to kiss me, but he didn’t. He moved my hands above my head again, and began kissing and nibbling at my neck. Not quite what I was initially after, that I’m sure he knew, but it was enough to draw a gasp from me. His bare hands re-traced the lines his gloved hands traced several minutes ago. His mouth enveloped one nipple as his fingers pinched the other. I groaned, pressing my chest up into his touch. Even though I wanted to run my hands through his hair, touch his face, I didn’t. I kept my hands above my head where he’d placed them. He didn’t say anything, sure, but his intention was fairly clear. I moved one leg over him, but he took it and pressed it back into the bed.

“Uh-uh, keep still,” he ordered, force in his voice despite its quietness. He kissed his way down the rest of my body. My hips rolled to try to meet his mouth, but he ran circles around where I really wanted him. He kissed the insides of my thighs, biting down, surely leaving marks for me to marvel at later. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of him kissing spirals closer and closer to my core, he dove in, going full force right out of the gate. He easily slid two fingers into me, and started licking and sucking over my clit. I moaned, loud, my hips bucking, my eyes flying open at the sudden intensity. “Stars, you’re loud,” he mumbled, then gently but firmly bit down on my clit. I practically screamed, and he chuckled, continuing his stimulation.

It took maybe a minute and a half of this, but I was already almost to my climax. “Din! Din, fuck, can I cum? Oh, Maker, I need it, please let me cum,” I begged, writhing under his touch.

“So soon? But we’re nowhere near done. How about I give you a taste?” His tone sounded almost sinister, but he didn’t stop, so I assumed that was a go ahead. I let myself reach the point of no return, but Din had other ideas. It was the cruelest, yet hottest thing he’d ever done. He stopped everything, and instead of waves and sparks of pure bliss, it was like a blaster firing a blank. My muscles contracted for nothing, no satisfaction, no resolution, yet I knew I’d need to start from the bottom to build to another climax.

I groaned, frustration saturating my voice. I almost wanted to cry. “Din, you… _uhg_ ,” I complained, shifting my hips and balling my hands into fists to try and relieve any of the tension that had built up in my body.

“Don’t worry, Thessa, you’ll get what you want soon enough,” Din mused, crawling up the bed to be eye level with me. He brushed a strand of hair from my face, then grabbed my hips and flipped us over. I adjusted to straddle him, and grinned. My hands planted on his chest, and I gently scratched down it. I moved further down his legs to blindly fumble with his belt, but before I could actually do anything Din’s hands met mine and freed his erection from his pants. I brought my hands to my face and licked one of my palms wetly, taking my time in doing so. I heard a ragged breath come from him and I grinned. Once my hand was sufficiently wet, I took his cock in my hand and took one long stroke, thumbing over the head, then again. He made a noise somewhere between a moan and a growl.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked, quietly, keeping him in my hand, pumping slowly.

He hummed. “Uncharacteristic,” he commented. I’ll give him that. Usually I just did what felt right.

“You made it clear you’re in control,” I responded.

His hands ran up my hips before bringing one to my hair and pulling me down to growl in my ear. “I want that tight pussy of yours around my cock.” The unfiltered, rich, deep baritone of his command sent shivers down my spine. I bit my lip. His hand let go of my hair, and I brought my hips up and forward a bit. I lined him up with my entrance, and impaled myself in one swift, smooth motion. It elicited a moan from both of us.

I began to move my hips back and forth, making slow, swooping motions, alternating between circular and figure-8 movements. He kept a firm grip on my hips, holding me down to him. His fingertips dug in, not painful yet, but as he got closer and closer to his own climax, his grip tightened, and I was convinced I was going to have bruises there. Without thinking, my hands went between us, searching for my clit to help us both out here. But that was a mistake.

Din snatched my hands away from me and clicked his tongue. “What did I say earlier?”

I groaned in response, almost frustrated again, but I knew exactly what I did. I felt the bed shift as he sat up, pulling me down. He slipped out of me and I made a noise of disappointment at the sudden feeling of emptiness. He pulled me over his lap again.

“Five again. I won’t be so easy on you next time,” he said, lining up his strike by placing a hand on my ass. I took a breath in, and his hand came down. I groaned, my thighs squeezing together. As he continued, my noises became more moans than anything else, and I was dizzyingly turned on. The fifth came down, and my toes curled.

“F-fuck, Din… Please…” I mumbled, lifting myself on my hands and leaning towards his face.

“Please what?” he asked, brushing some hair out of my face before lifting my chin towards him.

“Please… I wanna cum for you… for real, all over you… I’ll do anything…”

“Anything, hm?” He guided me off his lap, then placed me face down on the bed. He brought my knees under me, my still-stinging ass in the air, face against the pillows. I felt him climb behind me, and he lined up and thrust into my pussy, growling lowly as he did. I moaned out, my hands wanting to search for his wrist, but they were uncomfortably attached and sandwiched between me and the bed. This position allowed him to find every single sweet spot inside me, causing me to moan out with practically every thrust. I wasn’t going to have a voice tomorrow. I could feel his fingers digging into my hips again, tightening every now and again when my walls rippled around him. This also caused him to moan, which was a sound that I’d never tire of hearing. After a while of this, he settled into a steady rhythm of continually rubbing right against a particularly sensitive spot, and it sent me quickly spiralling towards a climax.

“Din! Fuck, fuck, fuck, can-- _shit,_ please, please, let me cum, I need--”

He groaned. “Cum for me, Thessa, the whole thing this time,” he said, that smirk coming through in his voice again.

“Din!” I shouted, not caring a single bit about my volume level. My orgasm crashed around me and I saw stars on the edges of my vision. My walls squeezed hard down around him, making him moan out again, which only spurred me on. Din slowed, and I rode out the rest of my climax, working out the last bits of tension before he slid out of me. I groaned, the feeling of emptiness once again foreign and somewhat unwelcome. I rolled over onto my back, allowing blood to flow back into my arms.

I was panting, smiling slightly. “Thank you,” I whispered, moving to sit up and lean in his direction.

“That’s what happens when you’re good for me,” he responded, one hand going to my arm and pulling me forward towards him.

“You didn’t finish,” I said, hands reaching out as he moved me. I placed my hands on his chest, trying to orient myself somewhat. “Let me take care of that.”

I crawled towards the edge of the bed, carefully stepping off of it. I pulled Din along with me, and he sat on the edge of the bed. I got on my knees between his legs and used my cuffed hands to feel up his thighs to my current target. I took his cock in one hand, taking one stroke, not worrying too much about lubrication right now, as he’s still slick with my wetness. I moved my head forward, somewhat awkwardly due to my blindness, and licked over the head almost teasingly slowly before wrapping my lips around it. He shuddered, and his hand went to my hair, tangling itself in it gently. I hummed, making his grip tighten, and lowered my head, taking more of him in, tasting myself on him. I began bobbing, taking more and more in as I worked. I gently scraped my teeth against the underside of his member, just once.

“ _Thessa,_ stars!” he exclaimed, tightening his grip in my hair even more, but not pulling me away. If I could have, I would’ve smiled. I took a deep breath in through my nose, swirled my tongue around him once, and took him in to the hilt, swallowing a bit as I did. Din’s hips bucked up into me as I did this, and he grunted, saying something I couldn’t quite parse. It didn’t sound like basic standard. I gagged slightly, nothing I couldn’t handle, and went back to my normal bobbing. He was already close as it was, so I wasn’t at it long before he hit his own climax.

“Thessa! I’m--” he choked out, before he came, his cock twitching in my mouth, releasing hot, salty seed in my mouth. I swallowed every drop before coming up for air, gasping in a lungful. Din released his grip from my hair and gently grabbed my arm and brought me back up to the edge of the bed. He took my wrists and undid the cuffs, tossing them aside. I took a moment to rub where they were, then threw my arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a kiss. I nibbled at his lips, then ran my tongue along it, pushing into his mouth. My now free hands went to his cheeks, thumbing over his features. Cheekbones, jawline, the bridge of his nose. It didn’t give me a great idea of what he looked like, not that I needed to know, or wanted to know for his sake, but it was good to feel the slopes and lines of his face anyway. One hand went from his cheek, down his neck, and slipped under his shirt to his back, feeling over his skin. It was smooth, warm, but still dimpled and streaked with scars from countless encounters with countless people. His muscles were defined, and they shifted under my fingertips as he leaned into my touch somewhat.

“That was amazing,” I whispered as I pulled away slightly.

“Mm,” he hummed in response, his bare hands following similar paths along my skin. “You’re quite skilled with your mouth.”

I grinned, kissing him again. “I do my best.”

I moved back onto the bed, pulling him with me as I laid down. We shifted into a comfortable position, and I wrapped my arms around him. He kissed the top of my head, and we snuggled in. There were a few moments of silence.

“Din, I didn’t know Mandalorians had their own language,” I said softly, leaning up almost as if I was looking at him despite being blindfolded still.

“We do,” he said. “It’s alive and well within our tribes, but our numbers are nowhere near as strong as they used to be.”

“You should… you should teach me,” I said. “If that’s allowed in the Way.”

There was another moment of silence. “I don’t see why not… _cyar’ika_ ,” he responded.

“What does that mean?” I asked, my hand going to his face.

“It means… darling, or sweetheart,” he responded, placing his hand over mine.

“ _Cyar’ika…_ ” I smiled, placing another kiss on his lips.

“That’s lesson one,” he said. “We can continue tomorrow.”

I hummed, something about the term of endearment warming my heart. Din reached over me, picking up his helmet and gloves, putting them on before removing my blindfold. “Sounds good to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi at spacegayofficial.tumblr.com !


	7. On The Mend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey happy New Year everyone! Here's my gift to you: another chapter! Enjoy!

Some more time passes. I’ve been on the Razor Crest with Din and the kid for a few months now. It’s all been going swimmingly… but someone had to get sick at some point. First, it was the little one. Just a cough, some sniffles. He got over it fairly quickly, and I was pleased to see him back to his normal shenanigans after just a couple days of downtime. I was next, though, and Din was lucky he wore that helmet all the time. I wasn’t nearly as lucky and was down for at least four days, I don’t remember clearly. I was pretty sick. But, I woke up on the fifth day and felt significantly better. Even better after a shower. Although I could definitely get used to having Din bring me soup in bed all day every day, that wasn’t viable for someone like me who easily gets stir crazy.

At one point, I had insisted I was fine and went up to the cockpit to help Din do some calibrations on the navigation computer.

“Din, really, I want to help,” I said, pausing to cough. 

“ _ Gar atin, cyar’ika. _ ”

“ _ Atin? _ ”

“You’re stubborn.”

Of course, despite my stubbornness, I quickly fell asleep in the copilot’s chair. I woke up back down in bed. I had absolutely no idea how he’d managed to get me down here; carrying a whole person while you have to climb down a ladder doesn’t sound exactly feasible, but there I was. I asked him, and he just shook his head a little and told me he had to keep some of his tricks up his sleeve.

After zipping through the shower and shedding my bog-creature alter-ego I apparently adopt when I get sick and neglect to wash my hair for a few days, I went back into the bedroom and threw my dirty clothes in the hamper. I put my hands on my hips and thought for a moment. Those sheets needed to be changed, especially before Din slept on them again, and I was fairly certain that was our last clean set. We kept a few sets of sheets around since we didn’t always have an easy way to do it, and no one likes doing their laundry by hand. It takes all day and you’re sore for a couple days after, and I was already sore from laying in bed for four days straight. Lucky for me, we were in a fairly busy port and someone around here had to have laundry facilities or a droid or something. I gathered everything into the hamper, and went to the ramp to the ship.

“Din, I’m going to go get our laundry cleaned. We’re out of sheets,” I shouted up to the cockpit.

Din quickly descended the ladder to the cockpit, small green baby in the crook of his arm. “Are you sure you’re feeling up to that?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I feel a lot better. Showers work wonders,” I said. “Why don’t you come with me? You’ve been cooped up in here taking care of me, we could use a little bit of time out to stretch our legs.”

He nodded. “That sounds good.”

I smiled and headed down the ramp. I flagged down the person who was working in the bay we had landed in and asked them for directions to a laundry facility nearby. They informed me there was a place just a few blocks away that had laundry droids available. I thanked them, and we headed that way.

We arrived at the little laundromat and dropped off our hamper. It was reasonably priced, surprising for a port like this one, and it would be done in a couple of hours. Just enough time to go out shopping and have a little bit of fun before we headed off to our next destination.

First things first, though: food.

We found a little place that didn’t look particularly shady; lots of windows and well lit. We sat down and a waitress came over, taking our order. I ordered soup, because even though I was feeling much better and had energy again, my throat was still scratchy from all the coughing I’d been doing. I made sure the little one had a good meal, balanced, with some bread, meat, and vegetables. Din didn’t order anything, of course, but we had plenty of rations and groceries back on the ship for him to eat when he had some time alone. Sometimes I worried he wasn’t eating enough, honestly.

That’s one thing that I longed for in our relationship. Sharing a meal. There’s something about not being able to sit down and eat dinner with him that broke my heart a little every now and again. I understood it was a necessity, and I never pushed the subject with him or really even brought it up. Just one of those things that crossed my mind occasionally when I ate with the child.

Once we were finished eating, we went down to the market area and spent some time just looking around. Pointing strange things out to each other, laughing at some of the more outlandish things people were selling, from wildly ugly decorations for people’s homes to snake oils claiming to cure any number of ailments.

“Think we should get this for the ship? Hang it somewhere in the cockpit for good luck or something,” I asked sarcastically, holding up a bizarrely colored statuette of some Nabooian queen in an extremely elaborate headdress.

He shook his head. “The way those eyes are painted would distract me way too much.”

I looked closer- they were a little bit wall-eyed, and the lines were a bit wobbly. Having seen it, I would never not notice it if I had it around. “You’re right. But man… the things people’ll buy,” I said, setting the statuette down.

At some point, I found a shop selling clothes. I went in with the intention of looking around, maybe picking up some essentials. I had ruined quite a few shirts in the past few months. And I did, just grabbing a few new shirts and a pair of pants, but not before something caught my eye. It was a dress, and the silhouette was simple enough; modest, long sleeved, long skirt, except for the fairly deep neckline. But the fabric was gorgeous. It shimmered in the light, and almost looked like the designs had been painted on with dye or something. It was reasonably priced. I had no idea where I would wear it, unless Din and I went somewhere quite nice for a job or…  _ a date. _ It occurred to me then that we’d never been on a  _ date _ . It would either be incredibly fun or horribly awkward, but I was leaning towards the former. Maybe I could convince him if we went somewhere nice. Always a chance a job would take us somewhere that wasn’t a shady skughole. I glanced around, and saw that Din was standing outside the store keeping watch. Not watching for anything specific, of course, that was just how he was. I quickly bought the dress and my other new clothes, standing in such a way that he hopefully couldn’t see what I was doing, and kept it carefully in the bottom of the bag the shopkeeper gave me so he couldn’t see it.

We continued to meander around the market. I ended up losing track of Din for a few minutes at some point, but he quickly rejoined the child and I just as I was buying the child a new toy. Well, it was definitely supposed to be decoration of some kind, I wasn’t sure, but it was round, shiny silver, and big enough the little one couldn’t fit it in his surprisingly large mouth, unlike that knob he kept stealing off the controls in the cockpit.

“See? Now you don’t have to steal that knob, and you can’t accidentally swallow it!” I cooed, handing it over to him.

Din looked over my shoulder at the kid. I smiled up at him. Then I noticed how much lower the sun was in the sky. “I think it’s well after the time our laundry was ready, we should go pick it up. Find anything good?” I asked.

“A couple things. I’ll show you later,” he answered, something akin to mischief in his voice. It piqued my curiosity, but I had a feeling that it wasn’t something I would see until later that night. “What about you?”

“Oh, just a couple new shirts to replace some ones I’ve ruined since I’ve been with you. Nothing special,” I responded, knowing that wasn’t entirely true.

We made our way back to the small laundromat and picked up our freshly washed and folded laundry. I thanked the shopkeeper, tipped him, and started to walk back to the ship.

Din and I walked together when we were out at ports more often than not. We both could handle ourselves, obviously, but sometimes it’s just a little bit easier to defend ourselves when we’re together if that’s ever needed. Unfortunately this time, it made us a target, but that wasn’t something we’d figure out until later. As we walked back to the ship, and completely unbeknownst to us, a bounty hunter’s tracking fob blinked regularly somewhere down an alley. We knew it was a risk coming to a somewhat densely populated port for any amount of time, but we needed to be somewhere near supplies while the kid and I worked through our illnesses. That combined with the fact that it had been nearly a week and nothing had happened, we felt fairly okay with this.

Like I said, this wasn’t known to us at the time. All I knew then was that I wanted to get back to the ship, put our laundry away, and make the bed again.

We made it back to the ship, and I set our clean clothes down in the bedroom. Din followed after putting the child in his little alcove with his new toy, and started to help put things away.

“I had a good time today,” I said, tucking in the fitted sheet around the edges of the mattress. “We should do that more frequently.”

Din nodded a little, gently closing a drawer in the small dresser. “It was nice to get out. It was kind of you to buy the little one that toy,” he said.

“Absolutely. His eyes lit up the moment he saw it. Hopefully it’ll keep him from taking that knob,” I responded. “Thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome,  _ cyar’ika _ .”

I grinned. Something about that term just warmed my heart. Maybe it was just being called a term of endearment, maybe it was that combined with the fact that this language had significance for Din. Regardless, I loved it. I loved him. We still hadn’t had a moment of confession, yet, however. I was okay with that. It was still fairly early in our relationship and Din definitely seemed to be the slow going type when it came to serious relationship stuff. It took me almost two weeks on the ship before I actually put my clothes in a drawer in his dresser, which was well after we’d had sex the first time. I didn’t want to rush him into serious relationship territory. I knew that he had his own issues to work through, and I had a feeling the walls he’d built around himself were fairly thick. And they still are, but he’s built a door for me to pass through.

“Hey, it’s getting late. I’ll finish making the bed, why don’t you go eat something while I’m in here?” I suggested, starting to stuff a pillow into a pillow case. “Then we can put the kid to bed and maybe you can show me what you got at the market today?” I grinned suggestively over to him.

Din finished putting a shirt away in the drawer, then closed it. “That’s a good idea. Just stay in here until I come back, okay?”

I nodded and placed the pillow down. He gently squeezed my shoulder as he passed by to exit the room back into the hold, the door shutting behind him. I took my time finishing making the bed. I had expressed to him that it was fine for me to be in the bedroom for a while, I could read a book or something, he could take his time to enjoy his food and have a little while with his helmet off. He always seemed to eat too fast though, but he was fairly set in his ways. That I’d accepted.

I finished spreading out the blanket over the bed, then went to finish up putting away the rest of the laundry. Din walked back in at some point, and came up behind me, wrapping his still-armored arms around me.

“The kids asleep already,” he said quietly.

“Good. So, what’d you get?” I asked, leaning my head back into his chestplate, looking up at him. He reached back around him into one of his many pouches and pockets, and pulled out a bundle of soft, dark red rope. I bit my lip, scenarios of what this could be used for flashing in my head.

“Figured this might be more comfortable than those cuffs I have. And a little more versatile. I have a few more lengths, so if you enjoy it, we can get more complex.” He took my hand and turned me around to face him. “I also found this, which after you reacted the last time I spanked you…” he trailed off, showing me a deep brown, bantha leather-bound paddle. One side was smooth, the other had blunt studs in the leather.

“Maker,” I whispered, reaching out and lightly feeling the studs. “I just got my voice partially back and you’re gonna make me lose it again. I’d love to play with these tonight, but I might still be contagious.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” he responded. I could hear the smile on his lips. He sat the paddle down on top of the dresser and began unwinding the bundle of rope. “Why don’t you get undressed.”

I started, tugging my shirt over my head. “You could keep the helmet on,” I suggested. “Seems to have kept you from catching this so far.”

“Maybe I will. Would you like that?” he asked, taking a length of the rope in his hands and folding it over itself.

That shouldn’t have been a difficult question. It shouldn’t have made me flustered, but I blushed a little bit. The thought of him growling commands at me from under the helmet the entire time rather than just at the beginning, the thought of me being able to  _ see  _ exactly what he was doing to me… I peeled my pants off of my legs, throwing them aside. I looked up at him. “Uh… I-I mean…”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” I bit my lip, taking my underclothes off and tossing them to the side with the others. “Alright, stand up straight.”

I did, and he began wrapping the rope around me, across my chest, over my shoulders. I was lost watching his hands work expertly, like this was something he did every day. Each knot and weave had its place. He held my arms behind my back, elbows bent so my forearms were parallel to each other. He had completed the portion on my body, a harness that framed my breasts quite nicely, and began to tie my hands together.

“Where did you learn to do this? It’s beautiful,” I asked quietly, admiring the work he was doing. I almost wish we had a mirror in here. Now that’s a thought.

“Sometimes you don’t have cuffs and you have rope,” he answered. “Granted when its on quarries its not nearly as nice. But I worked with a group… a long time ago, and one of them showed me how to do this. It was a helpful skill for other things, as well. Knowing how to tie a good knot will get you out of more situations than you might think.”

“Well, maybe you’ll have to teach me sometime,” I responded.

“Sure. Is anything too tight? Any tingling, discomfort?” he asked, tugging on a piece of rope as if to test its hold.

I flexed my hands and shrugged my shoulders. “No, but I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

“Good. Same safeword,  _ ke’pare, _ okay?” he responded. I nodded. I looked over my shoulder and he stood upright, taking a step closer behind me and wrapping his arms around me again. One hand snaked down between my legs and I gasped, my hips instinctively grinding against his touch. His other hand came up, and he gently but firmly placed it low around my throat. My chin tilted up, and I could ever so slightly hear his breathing in my ear. “I like you all tied up. Helpless.  _ An’ner.  _ All mine,” he growled. The heat between my legs grew. He briefly squeezed around my throat, just at the sides, and took one more hard rub at my cunt before shoving me over to the bed. He followed, his fingers finding purchase in my hair.

“I think we should try out this other new toy first,” he said, picking it up from where he’d set it down on the dresser. “You haven’t done anything, but I think you don’t care about that. Might not even be a punishment anyway.”

I smiled slightly and bit my lip. “Sounds good to me.”

He sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed the knots keeping my arms together, placing me over his lap, the cold beskar plates of his thigh guards pressing into my skin. “I think ten sounds good. Five with the smooth side, five with the studs.” He pressed the material into my skin, tracing it over my ass without impact, almost as if he was lining up his shot. “I want you to count them.”

I nodded, shifting on his lap. “Alright.”

He raised the paddle, then brought it down hard with a satisfying slap. “One!” I gasped out, my hands already forming fists. It hurt, about the same as some of the harder spanks he’s given me with his gloves on. But that was just the first. I shuddered to think what a mess I’d be by the end of this.

Another came, ever so slightly harder, on the other side. “Two!” And so on, gasps slowly turning to moans, until we got to the halfway point. “Five! Maker!”

He paused, taking a moment to rub over where he’d hit. “I’m going to flip it. Are you doing okay?” he asked. The edge in his voice was gone, and I knew this was a genuine question. I nodded.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It hurts… but  _ good, _ ” I admitted, smiling slightly. I forced my hands to relax from their balled up fists and uncurled my toes.

He flipped the paddle over, and again placed it gently against my skin so I could feel the studs. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

He brought it down, and I practically screamed out. It  _ hurt _ . But I had no desire to use our safeword. I wanted him to continue. “S-six!” It was like each stud was a dagger. My head fell briefly, but I brought it back up and took a deep breath. He brought it down again. “Seven!” I could feel tears stinging in my eyes. I’d definitely been in more pain than this before, but it was… something about the setting, something about feeling so  _ safe _ and  _ secure _ here in his lap, vulnerable, that brought my guard down enough. I clenched my jaw as he brought it down for the eighth, then the ninth, and finally the tenth. “T-ten! Fuck!” My head fell, this time hanging there, and a tear rolled from my eye. I took another deep breath.

He set the paddle down and rubbed over my skin again. “You okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “That was amazing,” I said, smiling. His hand found its way to my hair again, pulling it so my head was completely upright. His other hand went from rubbing my skin to easily sliding a single finger into my pussy. I groaned, hips pushing back into the sensation. It wasn’t enough, but I wanted it anyway.

“Maker,” he mumbled. “You just love that, don’t you?” I was positively dripping with excitement at this point. He grabbed the ropes keeping my arms together again and pulled me off his lap, leading me to lay down on my back on the bed, but positioned some pillows so all my weight wouldn’t be on my arms, which led me to believe we’d be here for a while. He stood, and went back to grab another length of rope.

He pulled my legs apart, taking one and bending it at the knee, taking time to artfully wrap the rope around my legs several times, forcing it to stay bent. He did the same with the other. I was spread out before him, completely at his mercy. The thought would probably scare any other person in the galaxy. Not me. This was the safest I’d felt in a long time. I trusted him with my life, my happiness, my heart.

He settled on the bed between my legs, taking a gloved hand and slowly, frustratingly lightly traced lines up and down my soaked slit, almost meditatively, like he was thinking about what to do. I tried to push my hips forward to get more touch from him, but he pulled away, and I practically whimpered.

“Stay still, or you won’t get what you want,” he warned. I nodded, and looked through his visor where his eyes were. He didn’t move. I realized he was waiting on me.

“Please, Din,” I said, barely above a whisper.

“Please what?”

“I… don’t know. Anything. I just… I wanna cum for you, I want you to make me lose my voice again,” I answered, my hips shifting slightly.

“I intend to.” He leaned forward, rubbing his gloved fingers against me, and effortlessly slipping two into my entrance, moving them achingly slowly. I groaned anyway, thankful to be getting any stimulation at all. It wasn’t enough to get me anywhere, and he knew that. He was going to take his time, enjoying watching me writhe under his touch, growing more and more frustrated with the pace. And that’s exactly what he did. He brought his other hand up, using his thumb to rub my clit, causing me to moan, louder and more desperate than I intended. I fought the urge to move into his touch. He was using light pressure and moving slowly, but on the bright side his fingers began curling slightly, in search for a sweet spot.

I laid my head back momentarily, my breath shaking slightly as he worked. I wanted to ask for more, but I kept my mouth shut, afraid of asking too much and not getting what I wanted. I started watching him again, which had more of an effect on me than I was anticipating. I was so unused to watching him during times like these it almost felt  _ taboo,  _ but it was a huge turn on nonetheless. I was completely bare before him, tied up, and he was fully clothed, masked, with his gloved fingers deep in my pussy. Of course, I knew it was Din, but there was a certain air of mystery about being fingered by a masked bounty hunter that I could definitely get used to.

Eventually, he picked up his pace, so gradually it felt like an eternity. The entire time, my moans and hums were getting louder, and I was having a harder time keeping my hips still. I was getting close, my walls rippling slightly around his fingers. He had found a sensitive spot and focused everything there, his thumb pressing hard against my clit and rubbing quickly. My breathing quickened, and I lifted my head, looking him where his eyes would be. I was quickly nearing my orgasm, and he knew it.

“Din! Fuck, I’m gonna--” But before I could even get the whole sentence out of my mouth, he stopped. He didn’t ruin my orgasm, he just… stopped. He pulled his hands away, sat back, and waited. I groaned, my head falling back. “Din…”

“ _ N'epar nu pirur, cyar’ika _ ,” he said softly. “It can wait. Be patient.”

“‘M not gonna remember that,” I mumbled. “Not in my learning zone.”

He huffed out a laugh. “I know. Just be patient.”

I didn’t want to be patient, but I didn’t have a choice. Another long while went by, and he began again. It was the same thing. Taking his sweet time bringing me to the edge, then stopping again, and me groaning in frustration. Each time took a little bit less time, the more sensitive I grew. Or maybe he wasn’t waiting as long between each time he dove in. I genuinely don’t know. Time blurred, it felt like I was there for years, waiting for him to send me crashing over the edge. He did this tantalizing dance a dozen times at least. I was an absolute disaster by the end, moaning, mumbling nonsense pleas, my skin sheening with sweat.

“Din… please… Maker, I’m…” I groaned, frustrated, unable to form a full sentence. The only thing on my mind right now was orgasming. My body felt like it was going to explode if I didn’t.

He stood. Of course this was when he decided to take an incredibly long time taking off his armor. Well, it felt like an incredibly long time. Judging by our past encounters he was probably frustratingly turned on himself. Still, every second he spent not touching me felt like millenia. He climbed back into bed, freeing himself from his pants. It occurred to me just then that even though I’d had his dick in my mouth, I’d never seen it. The assessment I’d gotten from my feeling, though, was right. He was definitely thick, but longer than I had estimated. Not that I’m complaining. He pushed my legs apart again and settled between them, lining himself up and pushing into me, again taking his time, like every millimeter took effort.

Eventually he settled in, then leaned down over me, right next to my ear. “You’re perfect like this,” he growled, punctuating with a thrust. I moaned. “Completely undone, absolutely dripping, begging for me to fuck you into this mattress like the slut you are.” Another thrust. “You’re so slick, tight, like you were made just for me.” Another thrust.

“F-fuck, Din, please, fuck me,” I groaned. One of his hands went to my breast, gripping tightly. The other, incidentally the one that had been buried in me just a few moments ago, came to my mouth, pressing through my lips. I sucked on them eagerly, licking my taste off of them, like my life depended on it. He grunted and started thrusting, and I moaned louder around his fingers. His hand went from my breast to my leg, pushing it closer to my chest, allowing him to find a spot inside me that made me see fireworks. I almost accidentally bit his fingers in the process.

He continued this pace for a while, but it did not take long before I was rocketing towards a climax. “Din! Din I’m gonna cum, I’m--  _ Maker _ , Din!” My eyes tried to find his below his visor, and based on the absolutely intoxicating moan that came from him, I had successfully looked right into them.

He just nodded, and we both shouted the other’s name, crashing into our climax together. Mine was so intense I thought I could cry. My vision blurred, my eyes rolled back. My legs were shaking, and my walls were spasming wildly around Din as I rode it out for what felt like another eternity. I was panting like I had just run a marathon. Din was collapsed on top of me, and I pressed a kiss to his shoulder.

We stayed like this for a while, catching our breath. Din lifted himself off and out of me after a bit. I smiled at him.

“Din. That was the best orgasm I’ve ever had in my life,” I said, my voice quiet and scratchy. “Patience really does pay off. And I think you succeeded in the voice thing.” Words still weren’t easy.

I laid my head back as I felt him get up. “It does. And I think I did, too,” he said, an audible smile in his voice. He left the room briefly and returned with a damp cloth to clean us both up. He then began unwrapping the rope from my legs. I stretched them out, and sat up, letting him untie my hands and the chest harness. I rolled my shoulders and stretched my arms out as well, to the sides then above my head.

“I can’t wait until I’m not contagious and we can get our mouths involved in that,” I said, laying back down on the bed, reaching my hands out to Din. He took them, and laid down next to me.

“I don’t know, Thessa, you seemed to like the helmet quite a bit,” he responded. I smiled, placing my hand where his cheek would be.

“Well, sure, but I like kissing you too. That being said, being able to see what you were doing to me…” I said, humming. “That was hot.”

“I could tell you were enjoying it.” He ran his fingers through my hair, pressing his sort-of-forehead to mine like he had been doing the entire time I was sick. He explained it was basically a kiss among other Mandalorians. “Everything was okay, right? The spanking, the ropes, what I said?”

“Yeah, definitely. This is… a lot of fun. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of doing this kind of thing with you,” I said. “As long as you’ll have me, of course.”

“Neither will I,” he responded. I could still hear his smile.

There was a pause. I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. “I’m absolutely exhausted now,” I said, yawning. “I’m… gonna sleep. Good night, Din,” I said, settling into his chest as I had many times before.

“Good night, Thessa,” he responded.

I really would never get tired of hearing that, either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for the bookmarks and kudos. It means so much to me that you guys are enjoying this. As always, you can come hang out with me on my tumblr at spacegayofficial. Heads up: I have an idea for the next chapter that will include far more fluff, far more angsty, hurt/comfort goodness, and probably little to no smut. But I'll know more once I actually have it written. I have no schedule for this fic whatsoever, but it should be up sooner than later. Thanks again! <3


	8. Captured

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy cow an update the day after the last one! Don't get used to this lmao I am not usually this on top of things. Anyway heads up: this chapter does have some sorta kinda torture? It's not something I'm particularly good at writing but I had a moment of inspiration, so here it is. Also, no smut this chapter, and maybe not the next, but we'll get there.

We left the planet the day after that. I felt well enough, and we needed to move on.

Unfortunately for us, and definitely not to our knowledge, someone had tagged the Crest with a tracker.

We landed in a small port in our next stop, another nowhere planet in the outer rim. We were there for about a day when everything went to shit.

It was just before dinner time, and I decided I would run off the ship to go grab something for us to eat. Our rations didn’t sound good, and there was a restaurant just a short walk away that smelled absolutely amazing. I figured I’d get something to take back to the ship so we could all eat, including Din. Din stayed on the ship with the kid. I took a few credits with me, just enough to cover the meal, and headed out.

“It’s just a few blocks away, I have a blaster, I’ll be fine. You stay here with the kid. You did enough of taking care of both of us for a while,” I said after he’d suggested he join me to pick up the food.

“Alright. Just be careful,” he said.

“I will. Always,” I responded.

I was about to walk in the door of the restaurant when something hit me hard in the temple, and I blacked out, crumpling to the ground.

When I woke up, I was in a dark, messy room, my arms tied down to a chair. My blaster was gone from my holster, of course. My head hurt. Panic set in. I tugged on my restraints and started looking around the room for anything I could use to get myself out of here.

“Ah, she’s awake,” a voice said. “How’s your head? You’ve been out for a while.”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t even acknowledge I heard anything. They were after Din and the child, they had to be. I wasn’t going to tell them anything.

A devaronian man walked out of the shadows. “I’ll let you get out of this the easy way if you just tell me where they are,” he said. I didn’t react. He sighed. “We really don’t have to do this. You’re quite beautiful, I’d rather not bruise you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Clearly you can’t take a hint, so let me tell you this: no.”

He slapped me across the face, hard. “That’s not the right answer.” I knew he was going to get physical, but it didn’t really settle in until then. I tapped back into some training we had gotten in the rebellion. If we were ever captured, how not to talk. Thankfully I never really had to use it back then. So much for never having to use it at all.

“Thessa Emereas, former Rebel Alliance pilot, current nobody,” he mused, “except the partner to a certain Mandalorian Bounty Hunter’s Guild traitor and a very, very valuable quarry.” He stepped around me. I didn’t let it show, but I was extremely concerned that he knew this much about me. Not that I had much to hide, but those of us from the Alliance who still kept in contact had heard… rumblings of something going on. And we were all targets because of it. I knew Din was hiding the kid from Imperials.

“You and I both know what’s on the line, and I will do anything to reach my goal. You were sloppy, staying at that same port on Llanic for so long. I tagged you then. Now we’re here.” Shit. There’s a tracking device on the ship.

“We do both know what’s on the line. And I’ll do anything to protect them,” I snapped back. He punched me this time, and I felt blood drip out of my nose. Nothing broken. Yet.

“Protect them. Tell you what.” He continued to circle me. “I just want the quarry. Your Mandalorian isn’t really my business. You tell me where they are, I take the kid, you and Mando can go on your merry way.”

“What the hell did I just say?” I asked. “Fuck off.” Another punch, right in the gut. It knocked the wind out of me. I coughed.

“They weren’t on the ship when we went back and looked.” Good, there’s a  _ we. _ That means more bodies to fight through.

“If they’re not on the ship, then I don’t know where they are.” That was the honest to Maker truth. We hadn’t discussed anything. Din was smart, though, and probably knew something was wrong when I wasn’t back in just a few minutes.

Another punch to the face, the metallic taste of my own blood filling my mouth. I spat at my captor.

“Bullshit. You know where they are.”

“I don’t have the slightest idea.”

It went back and forth like this for ages. Yes, no, then he’d hit me. Eventually, though, he pulled up a chair next to me, and pulled a small knife.

“Clearly I’m not getting through to you. I know that you know where they are. You’re going to tell me where they are. Is that clear?” he asked, holding the knife as if he were showing it to me.

“I. Don’t. Know. Where. They. Are. I left them on the ship, that’s the only place I know they’d be in this dump.”

He changed the grip on his knife and held the tip to my shoulder, pressing, just hard enough for it to hurt, but not to stab in. “You do. And I would hate to have to see you watch what I do to your Mandalorian if I don’t get it out of you.” I spat at him again. He pressed the blade further in. I gritted my teeth, not wanting to give him the pleasure of making me scream.

“Bold of you to assume you’ll be able to get your disgusting hands on him before he tears you in half, you piece of shit,” I growled. Panic was subsiding. My gut was telling me I wasn’t going to make it out of here, but I wasn’t going to go down without making this man miserable. “Actually, wanna tell me your name? Maybe I can make it a popular insult like it should be. Synonymous with shit for brains, doesn’t have an ounce of self-preservation, ugly motherfucker.”

“Oh, Thessa, I’m hurt,” he said, feigning offense before jamming the knife into my shoulder as far as it would go, causing me to shout. “Drop the theatrics. Tell me where they are.”

“I don’t know.” He twisted the blade. “I’m not fucking lying to you! I don’t know where they are!”

He sighed, then pulled the blade out. That made me shout again. “Clearly you’re not interested in talking right now. How about we take a break, then we’ll continue, hm?” He patted my leg, which I jerked away from his touch. He got up from his chair and opened a box, taking out a gauze pad and some tape, tightly taping the gauze down to my new stab wound. “Don’t want you to have the opportunity to bleed out without me.”

I curled my lip in disgust and glared at him as he left. Once he was gone, I allowed myself to catch my breath. I was forcing myself to breathe steadily and put on a brave face. It was almost like I was playing a character. But I wanted to cry, break down. I was sure I wasn’t going to see Din or the child again. At least they were safe, for now. I hoped he’d found the tracker on the ship and bailed. I’d told him before if he had to leave me behind to keep himself and the child safe, he shouldn’t feel bad about it. He’d told the same to me. I never told him I loved him. I hoped he knew. I hoped he knew how much I wanted to run away from all of this with him, settle down, raise the child somewhere safe. They say it’s the thought that counts, and even though it broke my heart to know that I’d never get to see it, the thought would have to do.

After a long while lost in my thoughts, trying to make peace with the universe, my captor came back in the room. Same small knife in hand, same determined look on his face. I had to admit, I found him kind of intimidating. Tall and horned, there was something just… scary about devaronians. I didn’t let it show. I wouldn’t. I  _ couldn’t _ .

“Feeling cooperative yet?” he asked.

“Not particularly.”

He nodded, then took off the bandage from my stab wound. “Well, hopefully I can change your mind. Before I go any further, I’ll offer you this. Mando probably didn’t tell you how valuable this quarry is. Enough to live a nice life for quite a while without having to work again. Whoever wants that thing, they’re rolling in it.” He paused, inspecting my wound. “If you tell me where they are, if you help me get the quarry, we’ll split the bounty fifty-fifty. How does that sound?”

I scoffed. “Even if I knew where they were I wouldn’t tell you. I’m not a backstabbing scumbag.”

He sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.” He jammed two fingers into my wound, deeper than I thought the wound actually was. I growled, my fists tightening, my jaw clenching. “I will continue until you change your mind. Or remember where they are.” He pulled upwards, as if he was trying to lift me out of the chair.

“ _ I don’t know! _ ” I shouted again. He stopped pulling and took his fingers out of the wound. I panted, trying to catch my breath, not having realized I was holding it in an attempt not to scream.

“Why are you protecting them? What is he paying you? Must be a lot to keep your mouth shut like this,” he said. I didn’t answer. He shook his head. “Based on the handful of credits we found on you it can’t be that much.”

“You can get away with it. Who’s gonna mug a devaronian?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Alright, that’s fair,” he responded. “It really is a shame you’re not cooperating. I like you. You’re feisty. Really could fit right in with us.”

“Absolutely not.”

He sighed. He lined up his knife with a new spot just to the inside of his previous infliction. “Just tell me where they are, Thessa. We both want to be done here, don’t we?” he asked. “None of my offers have been retracted.”

“Eat shit.”

He stabbed me again, and I shouted. “You’re so difficult.”

“That’s my goal,” I said, forcing myself to grin.

He twisted the blade with more force this time. I let him continue without a response. The question and answer circle was getting tiresome for both of us, I think, so he didn’t say anything, but his question still hung in the air. He removed the blade after a long while of searing, sharp pain. The edges of my vision were darkening and everything kind of slowed down. I was suddenly acutely aware of what he was doing to me, how much pain I was in. The adrenaline was wearing off. I was definitely going to pass out again. He shook his head. Then I heard him shout in frustration, saw a glint of bloody metal, and felt a sharp pain across my arm. I blearily looked over. He’d cut a nice deep gash into my upper arm. I swallowed, hoping that he’d missed anything major, and promptly blacked out again.

Over some unspecified amount of time, with me blinking in and out of consciousness, the cycle continued. He’d ask me where they were, threaten me one way or another, and hit, cut, stab me. Something. I had to look like I’d been dragged from the back of a speeder around an entire planet. The worst was a cut along my abdomen, which he’d taken his time doing, just deep enough to hurt and leave a scar, but it wouldn’t kill me. I cried as he did it, unfortunately, despite trying my best not to show any weakness. But I was barely keeping myself awake, so my ability to do that was dwindling.

I dizzily came to sometime later, but only because there was noise, shouting, blaster fire. I couldn’t parse what was going on completely. I glanced over at my injuries. Somewhat dried over, so it had been a while, but still shiny with blood in spots. Maker my head hurt. Everything hurt. But I don’t think I was dead. Not yet, anyway. My vision came and went. Once the noise stopped I’d probably slip under again. I registered that the door opened. I glanced up. The devaronian was standing there. Pointing something at me. Something. A blaster. I closed my eyes. I whispered an apology. To Din, to the kid, to myself, to anyone in my life who needed it. I heard a blast. I felt the outside of my lower leg burn, and I hissed, but it wasn’t where I expected it. He missed?

I was still on the edge of consciousness, so when I saw Din, I figured I was seeing things. My brain conjuring some angel of death to usher me over to the other side. But that wasn’t so. He rushed over to me, hastily untying my restraints and picking me up.

“Din…”

“Thessa, it’s okay, I’m here, we’re going to get out of here.”

“I… ’m sorry,” I whispered, a hand weakly coming up to touch the side of his helmet. “I…”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he said. He started walking, fast, out of the building.

“There’s…” I was searching for words. My eyes wouldn’t stay open. “Tracker. On the ship.”

“I know, I found it. Stay with me, Thessa, keep your eyes open.”

I fought the instinct on his command. “I… I love you, Din. ‘M sorry… trouble,” I mumbled. But the instinct won over, and I lost consciousness again.

* * *

I only remember bits and pieces from the next while. Din shouting things at me, getting back to the Razor Crest, getting to hyperspace, and then letting out choked complaints and groans as Din took a cauterizer to my wounds. In hindsight I was glad I was mostly unconscious for that part. But every moment I was conscious, regardless of if he was tending my wounds, holding my hand, holding the child, sitting on the edge of the bed next to me, sitting on the floor next to the bed, he was always right there. I squeezed his hand when I could. I couldn’t get my thoughts in order enough to say anything, or the strength to do anything else.

At some point, even though I couldn’t say anything or really move, I heard him mumbling something. “I’m so sorry,  _ cyar’ika, _ this shouldn’t have happened.” He sounded upset. I had never heard this tone from him before. It broke my heart. But I squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.  _ It’s okay, _ I thought.  _ Neither of us could’ve predicted it. _

Eventually, I fully regained consciousness. I groaned, sitting up slowly, moving to stretch. I was stopped, however, both by the sling that was around my arm, and Din.

“Thessa,” he said, quietly. “How are you feeling?”

I smiled weakly. “Been better.”

He made a noise that sounded like a laugh, and then I heard a shaky breath. “You scared me there for a while.”

“Sorry,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. Tears welled in my eyes. “I… should’ve been more careful. Are… you and the kid okay? You said you found the tracker, right?”

He wrapped me in a tight hug, but clearly conscious of my injuries. “Typical. We’re fine, don’t worry about us. And yes, I found the tracker.” Was he crying? Now I was crying. “I thought I lost you.”

I hugged back with my good arm, sniffling a bit. “Can’t get rid of me that easily,” I joked. He pulled away, placing his hands on either side of my face. “I… meant what I said. I love you.”

“I love you too, Thessa.” He wiped my tears from my face. “I--” He paused and looked around, searching for something. He hastily grabbed a roll of bandages, tore off a piece, and tied it around my eyes. I heard his helmet clatter to the floor, and he pressed his lips against mine. I kissed back, my good hand going to his face, wiping his tears from it.

“How’d you find me?” I asked quietly. “How’d you hide so quickly?”

“I… The kid was upset about something. Something goes wrong every time he gets like that. I put him in his little room, where no one would be able to detect him, got off the ship, put it on ground security, and kept out of sight. A group of people came into the bay and poked around, looking for us. You hadn’t come back yet, so everything being what it was I knew something was wrong.” He helped me sit up the rest of the way, and sat next to me. I leaned against him. “I followed the group of hunters back where they came from. They were hiding out way on the outskirts of town, so it took me longer than I would’ve hoped to get to you.” He kissed me again. “I’ve about had it with devaronians.” I smiled. He had told me about that group he had the misfortune of working with on a job and how hard the devaronian on that crew was to beat into place.

“Din… Din, they knew who I was,” I said, brow furrowing. “My whole name. The fact I was a pilot. It’s… not that I have anything to hide, it’s just… If I’m just going to make you and the child a target…”

“Don’t talk like that,” he said, quietly but emphatically. “It’s okay. We’ll figure something out. Focus on healing, first.”

I nodded. “Alright.” I trusted him, that we’d have a plan, some way around this. “How bad is it?” I asked. I still hadn’t seen a lot of the injuries I’d gotten.

He was quiet for a moment. “Pretty bad,” he choked out. His voice sounded like it hurt him to say the words. “They really did a number on you.”

“It fuckin’ hurts,” I mumbled jokingly. “I want to go look, if you’ll help me get there, but first…” I reached out and pulled him in for another kiss. “I love you so much. More than anything in this galaxy.”

“ _ Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum, balyc, cyar’ika, _ ” he responded. I didn’t need him to translate to know what he meant. I’d probably remember that one for good.

He reached to the floor and put his helmet back on, removing the bandage from over my eyes. I smiled at him, and held my hand out. He grabbed it, helping me stand. It hurt to put pressure on my right leg, reminding me I’d been grazed by a blaster shot there. “Oh, right, I was shot,” I mumbled. “Remind me not to do that again.”

“Will do,” he responded, helping me over to the refresher so I could look in the mirror. Din wasn’t kidding when he said it was bad. I was sporting two nasty looking black eyes, a split lip, some other various bruising around my face. My arm that was attached to the shoulder that had been stabbed was the one in the sling. I pulled my shirt up slightly to inspect my cut. It was cauterized over, but healing nicely. Bacta spray and those cauterizers really did work wonders sometimes. Unfortunately it doesn’t prevent you from feeling like you’d been trampled by a mudhorn. Only one of us had firsthand experience with that, but I imagine this was similar. My arms were cut and bruised, too. I pulled the neckline of my shirt out of the way to look at the stab wounds on my shoulder. Again, cauterized, but bruised worse than the other cuts. I sighed.

“What… what did they do to you, there?” Din asked cautiously, almost like he didn’t want to know the answer.

“Stabbed me. He jammed his nasty fingers in one of them.”

“He  _ what? _ ” He almost sounded angry, not that he could do anything more about it; the person responsible was already dead.

“Didn’t feel good,” I said. “Definitely not the same as when you jam your fingers other places,” I grinned, trying to break the tension.

I heard cooing and my heart melted. I turned around, a little too quickly, almost losing my balance, and quickly scooped the little child up in my good arm. “Oh, little one, I missed you so much,” I said, smiling, feeling tears well in my eyes again. “I’m so happy you’re safe.” He babbled back at me, smiling himself, almost like he was trying to tell me about something exciting he’d done while I was out. “No way, that sounds like it was fun,” I said, as if I knew what he said to me.

“He missed you too,” Din said, patting the little one’s head.

I grinned. “I… really didn’t think I was going to make it out of there,” I whispered. “And while I was trying to make peace with that… One day, the three of us, we’ll settle down somewhere beautiful, peaceful, and have a nice life together, as a  _ family. _ How does that sound?” I asked, smiling, tapping a finger on the child’s nose. “I don’t know when, but some day.”

Din hugged the two of us. “That sounds wonderful, Thessa.”

I set the child down and glanced back in the mirror one more time. “I… need to sit down,” I said. “Probably eat something.” Din nodded and helped me over to the small table in the hold, and I sat down in the chair next to it. He brought me a couple rations, which I picked through and ate some of. I wasn’t particularly hungry, honestly, just from the pain I was in and the little flashes of memory coming back to me of my time spent kidnapped. But I knew I needed to get something in me. I finished what I could, wrapping up the rest to eat later.

“You should lay down again,” Din said. “And you should keep weight off that leg until it heals a little more.”

I shook my head. “I’ve spent enough time in bed to last a lifetime. Can you help me up to the cockpit? I just want to sit up there for a while.”

He sighed. “Alright, fine. Come on,” he said, climbing up the ladder and taking the hand that wasn’t in the sling, pulling me slightly so I could climb up. Once we were both up, he helped me to the co-pilot’s chair, and we both sat. There was a while where we both just watched the stars float by in silence, enjoying each other’s company. I laced my fingers in his, and squeezed a bit.

“I just don’t understand why they knew who I was,” I wondered aloud.

“It was probably just to scare you,” Din said reassuringly. “Like you said, you don’t really have anything to hide. Either way, I’ll work on making information on you harder to find.”

I nodded. “You’re right. It was just… jarring, you know, to hear a complete stranger call me by my full name. ‘Thessa Emereas, former Rebel Alliance pilot, current nobody,’” I quoted in a low, mocking tone. “Rude.”

“You’re someone to me,” Din said.

“I know,” I replied, smiling. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“You don’t need to apologize for that. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I know. But… it hurts to know you were hurt, if that makes sense.”

“It does.”

Another moment of silence.

“We should go somewhere nice next. Not like… fancy nice, but beautiful nice,” I suggested.

“I think I know just the place. There’s actually a friend there I think you’ll like,” he responded.

He spun around in his chair towards the controls, and punched in coordinates that he seemed to know by heart. “Sorgan?” I asked. “I’ve never been.”

“You wouldn’t have needed to. It’s in the middle of nowhere, no ports, no population density. Perfect hideout.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, settling into my chair. The child came up next to me and reached for me, so I picked him up and I placed him in my lap. Din jumped to hyperspace, and we began our journey to Sorgan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cara Is Incoming!
> 
> Come hang out with me on my tumblr at spacegayofficial in the meantime!


	9. Calm Before the Storm

“ _ Kaysh mirsh solus. _ ”

I snickered. “His  _ what _ is lonely?”

“Brain cell. But it just means ‘he’s an idiot,’” Din responded.

“ _ Kaysh mirsh solus. _ Definitely will come in handy,” I said, watching over the control panel as we continued on our way to Sorgan. We’d taken the downtime for me to learn some more Mando’a.

“How about…  _ mirshepar'la  _ and _ mirsh'kyramud, _ in the same vein.  _ Mirshepar’la _ means boring for a thing, like a book. Literally, brain devouring.  _ Mirsh’kyramud _ is a boring person. Literally, brain assassin,” he said.

I laughed again. “Maker, these insults are clever,” I commented. I cleared my throat. “So,  _ mirshepar’la _ for a thing, and  _ mirsh’kyramud _ for a person. Got it.”

“Your accent really is good. You’re catching on well.”

I shrugged. “I know a little bit of some other languages by virtue of being in the Alliance. Had a lot of folks from all over. I eventually got pretty good at picking things up.”

“ _ Kava sa do Huttese? _ ” he asked, making me shake my head slightly so my brain would switch gears. He was asking how my Huttese was, which I hadn’t tapped into for a few months, since I left the inn.

“ _ Ree grancha, bata soong sa do porko tee-tocky,” _ I answered. It’s good, but it’s been a long time.

He nodded. “That’s probably more handy than knowing Mando’a.”

“Well, sure, but I already know it, and I like learning Mando’a,” I said, leaning forward to place my good hand on his shoulder. “It seems important to you.”

He put his hand on mine. “It is. Thank you. I enjoy teaching it to you.”

“How far out are we?” I asked.

“Just a little while longer. Anything else you want to know while we wait?”

“Oh, of course, I want all the insults and curse words in the book!”

He laughed a little. “Alright, fair enough, get the real important stuff down first.  _ Haar’chak _ is good, just means ‘damn it.’”

“That’s one of my favorites anyway.  _ Haar’chak. _ Sounds nice and sharp, I like it,” I responded.

We continued this line of conversation for a while, until we got in range of Sorgan and had to focus on landing. We found a secluded spot not too far from a small settlement. Din helped me down from the cockpit and into the hold, where we both waited for the door to open. The little one followed behind us. They’d both been here before, he’d explained to me earlier, and he knew it was safe. It was quite beautiful--lush forest, the sound of native fauna filled the air, and it was a beautiful sunny day. We made our way to a small cantina, where an equally small crowd had gathered around an open area. A fight was happening, clearly organized, but a kind I hadn’t seen anywhere but the Rebel bases I had stayed at. They had on belts that connected the two fighters, but the connection could be shut off when one opponent tapped out, and therefore lost. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was called.

We watched for a while as a human woman, tall with dark hair, easily bested a human man, who looked about her same height but maybe a little beefier. By looks, I would’ve called it a tough fight for her, but she made it look easy. Once the fight was over and she’d collected her payment, she came over to us.

“Mando! What brings you back?” she asked. As she came closer, I noticed the tattoo on her arm. She was a dropper. A shock trooper. No wonder they were friends. “Maker, did you do this to your friend here? She’s a catch,” she said, flirtation thick in her voice. She was definitely quite attractive herself. I clumsily spat out some string of words that was supposed to be a polite deflection, but it came out as gibberish. I’d blame it on my injuries if asked.

“Thessa, this is Cara Dune. A close friend, and one of the best fighters I’ve ever met,” Din said. “Cara, this is Thessa Emereas. My partner.”

I held out my good hand, and she shook it firmly. “ Ooh, partner?” she asked, teasingly. “Good to meet you.”

“You as well,” I responded. “I see you were a dropper. I was a pilot, mainly X-wings.”

“No kidding! Good to see other rebels around.” She waved us over to go sit down around a table. The waitress came over with drinks.

“We just need to lay low for a few days,” Din said. “We ran into some trouble at our last stop.”

“I can see that. It doesn’t look like you had a great time,” she said, nodding over at me.

“I did not, that is for sure,” I responded. “How long was I even out when you brought me back to the ship?” I asked Din, looking over at him.

“You were in and out for about a day,” he said. “It… was pretty bad.”

Cara nodded. “Well, you’ve come to the right spot. No one bothers us here. It’s quiet.”

“And beautiful. You really found a nice hiding spot,” I said.

She smiled. My good hand went to Din’s leg, like I was reminding myself to ask him about something later. He looked over at me, and I shook my head slightly.

“So, I need to go set up a room for you guys since I wasn’t expecting guests. If you want to go back to your ship and get your things, I should be ready for you by then,” Cara said. “It won’t be much, but if you only need to lie low and heal up for a few days, it should be enough.”

“We appreciate it. We’ll be back soon,” I said.

“Thessa, are you sure you want to come back with me? You shouldn’t be walking that much,” Din said.

“It’s fine, I need to grab a few things for myself,” I said. “I’m okay.”

Din sighed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to argue with me on this. “Alright.”

We got up, thanked Cara again, and started the walk back to the ship, little one toddling along with us. Once we were far enough away we would be well out of earshot, but after looking over my shoulder just in case, I spoke.

“Din, she’s  _ hot, _ ” I whispered, as if someone could hear us.

He chuckled. At some point in our time together it had come up that I was not straight, and gender had very little bearing on if I find someone attractive. He and I would occasionally go back and forth talking about people who came into a bar where we were waiting for something, whether or not they were our types, that kind of thing. There’s something oddly refreshing about talking about other people attractive people with your significant other, and at the same time being entirely confident it would have zero negative consequence on your relationship. “I told you you’d like her.”

“Well, sure, but like, I assumed it was just because she was also a former Rebel, not because she’s some kind of warrior goddess,” I said, laughing a little myself.

“I knew exactly what I was doing,” he responded, a somewhat familiar tone of mischief in his voice.

“Din Djarin, what exactly are you suggesting?” I asked, feigning accusation, hitting him playfully on his chestplate, badly, since it was my bad arm.

“Well, I’m not her type, but you are,” he responded, “and I haven’t forgotten what you said that time we were sparring.”

That time we were sparring…? I wracked my brain trying to remember what I had said. Was it when I said a threesome might be hot? “Din!”

“Listen, if you weren’t being serious or you’re not into it, just say the word and I’ll drop it. You definitely aren’t up to anything like that yet, anyway, so you’ll have time to think about it if you want,” he said, helping me up the ramp back to the ship. “It’s just that there’s no one I trust more than you and Cara.”

I smiled. He really was the sweetest. “Well, I did mean it, I just sorta figured you wouldn’t be into it,” I said. “So yeah, when I’m recovered, maybe we can do that.”

Din and I went into our bedroom, splitting up, starting to pack things up to bring with us back to Cara’s. I grabbed a few of the child’s toys, some extra medical supplies so I could continue to redress these wounds, and a few changes of clothes. Din brought some various odds and ends for himself, similarly changes of clothes, but also a couple weapons. We probably wouldn’t run into too much trouble here, if any at all, but I knew it was the Way, so I didn’t push the subject. We finished packing up, and we started our trek back to the settlement.

Cara was there to meet us, motioning for us to follow her around the small cantina, and towards a smaller building that must be where she lives currently. It wasn’t much; a small hut made of branches like all of the other buildings around, but it was cozy and charming. Din helped me sit down in a chair she had set out, and I sighed in relief. I hadn’t realized how much pain I was in walking around on my leg until I sat down and took weight off of it.

“Well, as I said, it isn’t much, but hopefully it’ll do. You guys can stay in that spare room. I have a bed set up in there. Word of warning, though, the walls are thin and have a ton of holes in them, so if you try to do the deed, keep it down,” she joked. I laughed a little bit. Din helped get the kid set up in a crib, which I would imagine was borrowed from a neighbor and not actually Cara’s. 

“Thank you again for having us. It really means a lot,” I said.

“Of course,” she responded, smiling. I noticed then she had a Rebel Alliance symbol tattooed on her cheek. I thought it was a beauty mark, but no. She was really into it. I wondered why, but didn’t ask. It was probably personal. Many of the reasons people joined the Alliance were.

“Where’s a source of water? We need to keep her wounds clean and redress them if we can,” Din chimed in.

“Right outside and to the left, there’s a pump. I have a container by the door,” Cara said. Din nodded and got up, taking the bucket by the door with him.

There was a somewhat awkward moment of silence before either of us spoke. “So, how’d you get wrapped up with Mando?” Cara asked.

I laughed. “Right place right time, I guess. I was running an inn. He stayed there for a while and I volunteered to watch the kid while he took jobs. I proved I was good at that, then he found out I was a pilot,” I said. “Took me on a job with him so I could prove myself there. Of course a bomb went off and I got injured then, too.” I laughed a little bit, recalling that. Seems so trivial now with the injuries I have. “Then we had to flee the planet and I went with him. The rest is history.”

Cara laughed. “Bet you wish you had armor like his, then, huh?” she asked. “Sounds like you take a lot of hits.”

I shrugged. “I do, but I think D--uh, Mando takes a lot too, he just won’t show it. I only started helping him patch himself up after I’d been with him for about a month. Which was after… Well, we’d uh, gotten intimate other ways, but it is what it is,” I recounted.

“Oh, shit, have you seen him with his helmet off?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“No, no, even I’m not an exception to that rule,” I said, smiling a bit. “Honestly I don’t even feel like it’s that big of a deal anymore. It’s just part of who he is. What about you, though? How’d you two meet?”

“Here, actually. First thing we did was beat the shit out of each other. It was fun,” she said, grinning. “We helped a village fight off a group of raiders who somehow got their hands on an AT-ST. We worked our asses off training the villagers to fight that thing. We won, somehow.”

“Oh, yeah, he mentioned a little bit about that. It’s hard work taking down one of those walkers, I’m surprised you managed it,” I said.

“Me too. It was so funny, though, when we figured out they had a walker, we tried to convince the villagers to bail and move somewhere else. Of course, your boyfriend being the tactful person he is, just went ‘Bad news, you can’t live here anymore,’” she said, mocking his voice by lowering hers and covering her mouth with her hand to replace his modulator.

I laughed. “Maker, he did?” I asked. “Sounds… about right, honestly.”

“It was the truth at the time,” Din said, coming back into the room with a full bucket of water.

Cara and I looked at each other and laughed. “You’re a wordsmith, Mando,” Cara said.

He shook his head a bit, but I knew he was smiling.

“So, uh, if you don’t mind me asking, what… happened?” Cara asked, her tone switching to genuine concern.

I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it again, thinking for a moment. “I… was kidnapped,” I said. “Tried to use me to get to him and the kid. I’ll… leave it at that for now. Maybe another time, when it’s not as fresh?”

She nodded. “I totally understand.”

“We should change your bandages,” Din said, digging through our things to get to the medical supplies we brought with us.

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s getting late, anyway. I’m pretty exhausted. Being injured like this really takes it out of you,” I said, jokingly.

“I’m going to turn in, myself. If you need anything you know where to find me,” Cara said, standing and heading to what I assumed was her own room.

Din helped me up out of the chair and into the spare room. There was a mattress on the floor, thankfully wide enough for us to both fit comfortably on. Din stepped back out to grab the crib the kid was in, bringing it into the room with us. I grinned and waved at him, and he waved back, gurgling.

I sat on the edge of the cot, rolling up my pant leg to reveal the bandage around the wound there from being grazed by a blaster. I started unwrapping it, making a face as I saw the injury. “That sucks.”

“You’re probably going to need to take off your pants, there are a couple other injuries I need to redress,” he said.

“Oh, Din, you have such a way with words,” I said, fanning myself teasingly, smiling a bit, but shifting so I could awkwardly slide them off. Din helped me, and it was then I noticed another bandage around my thigh. I looked at it, trying to remember what it was.

“It looks like another stab wound,” he said.

“I don’t remember that at all,” I said, reaching out to unwrap it and take a closer look. It was also bruised, similar to how the one on my shoulder was, so I assumed it wasn’t just stabbed, but also messed with in other ways. I grimaced. “Maker. Seriously, remind me to never do this again.”

“I would appreciate you not going through this again,” he agreed, cleaning around the wound with a damp cloth before spraying some more bacta on it and re-wrapping it in bandages. He did the same with the graze before moving to my upper body. He removed the sling keeping the weight off my shoulder, and helped me remove my shirt so it wouldn’t be too painful. Still stung a little bit, moving that shoulder at all.

He removed the bandages from the wounds on my shoulder and arm, as well as the one along my abdomen, cleaned around it, added a little more bacta, then re-wrapped them with new bandages. He helped me find a shirt to sleep in, and a pair of pants, and helped me into the shirt before replacing my sling. I pulled the pants on myself, awkwardly, then laid down on my back, sighing.

“Thank you,” I said, watching as he removed a few pieces of armor, not all of it as I’m sure he wanted to be ready in this somewhat unfamiliar environment, but he clearly wanted to be comfortable enough to sleep.

He nodded. “You’re welcome.” He stepped over and laid next to me, pulling me close to him while still taking care with my injuries. “I hate seeing you like this. I… don’t want to put you in harm’s way by being with me like this forever.”

“It’s okay, Din. I really would do anything for you and the kid,” I said. “If I had to go through this a thousand more times I would.”

“I don’t want you to have to.”

I nodded. “I know. But, like I said when I woke up, one day, we’ll settle down. Somewhere like here, peaceful, beautiful. But our adventuring days aren’t over, we both know that. We’ll navigate this together until the day we don’t have to anymore.”

Din nodded, bringing a gloved hand to my face, gently placing it there. I did the same, pulling his face towards mine, pressing my forehead to his helmet.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks again for all the kudos and bookmarks, it means a lot. Also: don't be too harsh on my Huttese, I have much less of a handle on that than I do on Mando'a. Just a heads up, the next chapter or two is going to be... basically a revised recap of episodes 7 and 8 so I can get out of "on the run" limbo and into a zone where Din and Thessa and Cara can bang and have a great time, and also more chances for fluff! Maybe some poly stuff? Who knows.
> 
> Anyway, in the meantime, come hang out with me on my tumblr at spacegayofficial !


	10. Getting the Crew Back Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's where we start summarizing episodes 7 and 8 so I can get out of "on the run" limbo. I promise stuff will go back to normal soon!

_ I was hunkered down in that forest again, taking out stormtroopers as fast as I could, praying I’d stay alive. But they got me. They got me. I’d be killed. I was shoved into a cell on an Imperial ship. This is it. No one’s going to launch a rescue mission in a place like this for some pilot. No knight in shining armor. The devaronian from a couple days ago entered the cell with Imperial interrogation equipment. He threw Din’s helmet unceremoniously on the ground. I screamed. _

* * *

I sat straight up. Din was already right next to me, also sitting. I was panting, sweating a little. A moment passed and Cara was at the doorway, blaster in hand.

“Is everything okay?” Din asked quietly.

I nodded, swallowing hard. “Yeah. Nightmare. Did I… Did I yell?” I asked, looking up at Din, then at Cara.

Cara nodded. “Just yelled ‘no,’” she said. “I get them too.”

I nodded. “I just… I keep going back to that crash I had. But…” I trailed off. Din looked over at Cara. I took a deep breath. “I don’t know. It changes sometimes. This time they… captured me, and the devaronian… but he had your helmet, and…” I closed my eyes, brows knitting. Something was wrong, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“It’s okay. I’m right here, no one’s going to hurt us,” Din said reassuringly, taking my hand in his and squeezing.

“I know. I know.”

“If you need to talk… let me know,” Cara said. “Just not right this second. It’s the middle of the fucking night,” she said, laughing a little, clearly trying to break the tension.

I smiled softly. “Thank you, Cara. Sorry to wake you,” I said.

“It’s alright. G’night,” she said, waving her hand in the air, yawning, and heading back to her room.

“You’re sure you’re alright?” Din asked.

I nodded. “I’m okay. It was just… jarring. Do… you get nightmares?” I asked, laying back down.

He was quiet for a moment. “Sometimes. They’re… stressful.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry for waking you,” I said again.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind,” he said, pulling me close to him as he settled back into the bed. “Try to get some more sleep, okay?”

I hummed a positive response and did just that. It was actually quite restful for the rest of the night, with the added bonus of waking up to birdsong. But, as always, and empty bed. But not an empty room. Din was standing next to the crib, waving his fingers at the kid. I smiled, and started to carefully sit up.

“Morning,” I said.

“Good morning. I have some… news. I haven’t decided if its good or bad,” he said, coming over and helping me get up, starting to pull out the supplies we needed to change my bandages.

“Oh?” I asked, stretching a little, careful not to jostle any wounds too bad.

“I got a message. From Greef Karga,” he said.

“Guild Greef Karga from Navarro?” I asked, confused. This was the man who almost definitely would’ve shot Din for the child when he broke the little one out.

“Yeah. He said the Imps are overwhelming the town, and he needs to take out the client,” he summarized.

We began to change my bandages. “That sounds like a trap,” I said.

“I think it is, too, but I also think he’s right. If we don’t take out the client, the kid won’t ever be safe. We won’t ever be safe,” he clarified. 

I nodded. “What do we do?” I asked.

“We go to Nevarro and take our chances,” he said. “Ideally we wait a couple more days so you can heal enough to be ready for this.”

“We can’t do it by ourselves,” I said.

“You’re not going to,” Cara interjected, standing in the doorway. “Your boyfriend roped me in. I’m always down for taking out Imps.”

I smiled. We finished up the last of the bandages, and Din helped me stand. I was able to put weight on both legs--bacta worked wonders--and walked with the two of them, little one toddling along behind us, out to the cantina to grab breakfast. After that, we headed back to the ship, taking off to begin our journey, albeit a slightly elongated one, to Nevarro.

Once on the ship, Din showed me the transmission we received.

“ _ My friend, if you are receiving this transmission, that means you are alive. You might be surprised to hear this, but I am alive too. I guess we can call it even. A lot has happened since we last saw each other. The man who hired you is still here, and his ranks of ex-Imperial guards have grown. They have imposed despotic rule over my city, which has impeded the livelihood of the Guild. We consider him an enemy, but we cannot get close enough to take him out. If you would consider one last commission, I will very much make it worth your while. You have been successful so far in staving off their hunters, but they will not stop until they have their prize. So, here is my proposition. Return to Nevarro. Bring the child as bait. I will arrange an exchange, and provide loyal Guild members as protection. Once we get near the client, you kill him, and we both get what we want. If you succeed, you keep the child and I will have your name cleared with the Guild, for a man of honor should not be forced to live in exile. I await your arrival with optimism, _ ” the staticky hologram said.

I squinted. “Bring the  _ child _ as  _ bait? _ ” I asked incredulously. “Absolutely not! You know what, forget it, we should just go back to Sorgan and--”

“Thessa, you know this is the only option we have,” Din said, swivelling around in his pilot’s chair to face me. “I don’t like it either. And I’m not willing to put the child in danger.”

“Okay, but how are we going to get away with… whatever we’re going to do without doing just that?” I asked, following as Din got up and descended into the hold. I waved at the little one as we went down.

Cara spoke once we entered the hold. “Is… he alright up there alone?” she asked, noticing we didn’t have the kid with us.

“Yeah,” Din said. I shrugged. We’ve left him up there before.

Din opened his weapon cabinet. Cara’s eyes lit up. “Pick one,” he said to both of us, gesturing at it.

“Did we leave my blaster at the…?” I asked, trailing off.

Din nodded. “I couldn’t find it. Not in time, anyway. I’ll get you a new one,” he said. “But for now, you can use one of mine.”

I nodded, looking over the selection. “You still know this is a terrible idea, though, right?” I asked.

“Yeah. That’s why I’m bringing you two, though. If the three of us can’t--” Din was cut off by the ship taking a sharp dive, then coming back up again. Cara and I were flung to the wall, and Din began scrambling up the ladder to the cockpit. Cara and I followed. My heart was racing. This was not a good time to be attacked. Not that any time was a good time to be attacked. What if it was someone who worked with that devaronian?

My concerns were dashed the moment we entered the cockpit. Din picked up the little one from the joystick on the ship’s control panel, and handed him back to Cara, who immediately handed him to me. He flipped a few switches and the ship settled down to normal.

“I don’t have to fight, I can watch--”

“No, I have an idea. We’ll get someone to watch the kid.” He punched in some coordinates and waved for us to sit down, then he jumped to hyperspace. “The ugnaught who helped me find the kid in the first place. I asked him to join me before, maybe I can convince him to help.”

I nodded. Based on the story he told me of that time, this ugnaught seemed trustworthy enough. Not interested in the kid at all, just keeping his home quiet. I took a deep breath. This must be what was wrong that I couldn’t put my finger on the night before, after my nightmare. I stood up and quietly excused myself, going down to the hold to gather my thoughts alone for a moment. I sat down at the small table we had, sitting quietly for a while.

“We’re dropping out of hyperspace, hold on,” Din shouted from the cockpit.

“Copy,” I responded, the word coming from a combination of habit and the fact I was very distracted. This was happening, and I knew it had to, but what if it all went wrong? What if we lost the kid? What if I lost Din? I don’t know what I’d do with myself in either of those situations.

After a short while we landed, making our way to the home of the person Din had in mind. He invited us in, and we ducked into the small home. It was cozy, and he immediately came off as a kind person. He asked if I needed anything for my wounds. I politely declined. After chatting for a bit, nearly killing his IG unit, and a short negotiation, the ugnaught, Kuiil, agreed to join us, on the condition that both IG-11 and his blurrg came with us. We loaded everyone on the ship and headed off.

Now, the child has done some… interesting things since I’ve been with them. But when Cara started choking on nothing while armwrestling Din, I realized this little green toddler had a lot more going on than just a few tricks up his tiny sleeve. Din scooped him up, insisting Cara was his friend. He did stop, but Kuiil said something that caused he and Cara to launch into an argument about Kuiil’s past affiliation with the Empire. Din interrupted them by requesting Kuiil create a softer sleeping container for the child. He agreed to fabricate a new one, but not before I snuck up to the cockpit to escape the tension.

Eventually Din and Cara both joined me. Din sat in the captain’s seat, punching in coordinates for Nevarro. At some point, the IG unit came up to offer us second meal.

“Would you care to be served here or below?” he asked.

“I’m not hungry,” Din said curtly, turning back around to the control panel. The droid left, and the three of us were left alone again.

“You got a real thing for droids, don’t you?” Cara asked.

“I got a real thing for  _ that _ droid,” Din responded.

“Kuiil said he rewired it,” I said, hoping to calm him down a little bit. I knew he had… problems with droids, but we would need to live with this one for now.

“That droid was designed to kill things. I don't care how much wiring he replaced. It goes against its nature,” he responded.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a long job anyway,” Cara said. “We take out the head Imp, the rest will run like rats.”

“Maker I hope you’re right,” I said. Cara descended into the hold. “Din, we should change my bandages. I’m getting tired, anyway.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said, turning and standing up, offering me his hand. I took it and he helped me up.

“Hey, I can tell this is stressing you out,” I said, looking through his visor where his eyes would be. “I’m here for you. I know I’m not really the protector, here, but I won’t let anything happen to you or the kid.”

He placed his hand on my cheek. “I know you won’t. I won’t, either. Everything will work out fine.”

I was convinced of that, the way he said it. Everything would be just fine. Maybe it would be tough, but it would all be resolved by the time we left Nevarro. We made our way into the hold, then to his room. I sat on the edge of the bed and took my arm out of my sling, peeling off my shirt and pants and beginning to take off what bandages I could.

“How do you think the kid did that?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Din responded. “I sort of hoped you would have a better idea.”

I shook my head. “I… don’t know. I mean, like Kuiil said, there were rumors of people with powers to move things with their minds and all that, but I just figured they were… fantasy, or stories you told to keep your kids from staying out at night. I never paid much attention to them,” I said, tossing the old bandages aside. I looked at some of the wounds that I could easily see without a mirror. They were healing nicely, and I was able to move my shoulder again.

“Maybe you can go without the sling,” he said. “It looks like you’re healed enough you shouldn’t need it. But if that starts to hurt again or you need to take the weight off of it, let me know.”

I nodded. “I will. Bacta works wonders, doesn’t it?” I said, tracing my fingers over the cut across my abdomen.

“It does,” he responded. He started re-wrapping some of the wounds, but not bothering with some of the more superficial cuts and scrapes. Once he was done, and I was pulling on my bedclothes, he stood to put away the medical supplies.

“Hey, uh, grab the blindfold while you’re up?” I asked, almost sheepishly. “I… wanna kiss you.”

He didn’t say anything, but he grabbed the piece of cloth and brought it back over. He sat next to me on the edge of the bed, and pressed something on his wrist. There was a light click at the door. He locked it so no one could get in so he could take his helmet off. I smiled. He took the blindfold and tied it around my head over my eyes so I couldn’t see. There was a soft thunk of metal, and he reached out to me, placing a gloved hand on my cheek. My hands went to his face as well, feeling over his features again, then pulling him in for a soft, long kiss. It wasn’t anything hot and heavy, just… a kiss. I wrapped my arms around him and ran my fingers softly through his hair, gently playing with his curls. We stayed like this for a while, it could’ve been hours for all I knew. We both knew that, despite our assurances to each other that everything would be fine, this all could go way south very fast. We wanted to savor the moment.

Eventually he pulled away, and I made a pathetic whining noise that he chuckled at. “Thessa, you need to sleep,” he said, the sound of his unfiltered voice making me shiver.

“You do too,” I said softly.

“I’m not going anywhere. As much as I’d like too, I can’t keep kissing you forever,” he said.

“Sure you can,” I said, smiling. “There aren’t any laws that say we can’t just stay right here, kissing for the rest of our lives.”

“Maybe not, but we do still need to go take care of…” he sighed.

“I know. Let’s just… not think about that for now, okay?” I went in and kissed him again, shorter this time. “You’re right though. We should sleep.”

I scooted back on the bed, getting off of Din so he could grab his helmet and put it back on. Once he did, he took the blindfold off my face and set it aside. I helped him take off some of his armor so he would be comfortable sleeping. Again, with our new company, though, some of it stayed on. Once most of it was off, though, I pulled him to lay down with me, and he pulled me in close. I rested my head just below his, and fell soundly asleep. Dreamless, this time, thank the Maker. As close to relaxed as I could get in our current situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! I appreciate it greatly! Come hang out with me on tumblr at spacegayofficial !


	11. The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you weren't expecting two chapters in the same day! That's because this is basically a recap of episode 8 and it didn't take me particularly long to write. We'll return to your regularly scheduled smutty content next chapter!

The child… healed Greef Karga? How many tricks does this little womp rat have up his teeny tiny sleeve?

* * *

Greef betrayed his own men for us. I knew this was a trap, but I wasn’t expecting to disarm it this quickly. Something’s about to go terribly wrong.

* * *

“You have something I want.”

I carefully peaked over the bar, trying to get a look at this newcomer. No rank markings.

“Who’s this guy?” Cara asked, looking at Din, then at me. I shrugged.

Din continued to try and get a hold of Kuiil to see if they had made it back to the ship. No luck.

“You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not,” the newcomer said. “In a few moments, it will be mine.”

“Is there another way out?” I asked, looking over at Greef and Din.

“No, that’s it,” Greef said, nodding towards the door.

“What about the sewers?” Din asked.

“Sewers?” Greef asked.

“The Mandalorians have a covert down in the sewers,” Din said. “If we can get down there, they can help us escape.”

“Sounds great to me,” I said.

“Checking for access points,” Din said, toggling something on his wrist.

“What the hell are they waiting for?” Cara asked to no one in particular. She peeked out of the window. “Hold up.”

I looked over the bar just in time to see what was going on. “They’re… setting up an E-Web,” I said, alarm setting in as I finished my sentence.

“It’s over,” Greef said.

“I found the sewer vent,” Din said. I had never been more excited to go into a sewer in my life.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, crawling quickly over towards that side of the building. Cara and Din moved a bench out of the way to expose the grate. I looked around the pillar behind us and out the window. “It’s assembled, we need to move. Now.”

“Blow it,” Cara said.

“I’m out of charges,” Din responded.

“Then get out of the way,” she said, taking her blaster to the grate. It didn’t do anything.

The newcomer spoke again. “Your astute panic suggests that you understand your situation. I would prefer to avoid any further violence, and encourage a moment of consideration. Members of my escort have completed assembly of an E-Web heavy repeating blaster. If you are unfamiliar with this weapon, I am sure that Republican Shock Trooper Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan will advise you that she has witnessed many of her ranks vaporize mid-descent facing the predecessor of this particular model,” he said. Of course Cara is from Alderaan. My heart sank a bit for her. “Similarly with Thessa Emereas of Denon, Republican Pilot, who can surely recall members of her squadron taken down by a similar weapon, most notably on the forest planet of Panatha during an attempt to liberate it from the Empire where she was downed and captured by our troops.”

A lump formed in my throat. I had done such a good job of forgetting that. How did he know? Who  _ was _ this?

“Or perhaps the decommissioned Mandalorian hunter, Din Djarin, has heard the songs of the Siege of Mandalore, when gunships outfitted with similar ordnance laid waste to fields of Mandalorian recruits in The Night of a Thousand Tears.” I looked over at Din, horror on my face. How did he know  _ his _ name? Din looked at me. I couldn’t tell exactly how he was feeling, but it wasn’t good.

“I advise disgraced Magistrate Greef Karga to search the wisdom of his years and urge you to lay down your arms and come outside. The structure you are trapped in will be razed in short order and your storied lives will come to an unceremonious end.”

There was a pause. “What do you propose?” Greef asked.

“What are you doing?” I asked, hushed, but loud enough for him to hear me. He waved at me to get me to quiet down.

“Reasonable negotiation,” the new Imperial responded.

I shook my head. “What assurances do you offer?” Greef asked. I sighed.

“If you're asking if you can trust me, you cannot,” he responded. At least he’s honest. “Just as you betrayed our business arrangement, I would gladly break any promise and watch you die at my hand. The assurance I give is this: I will act in my own self-interest, which at this time involves your cooperation and benefit. I will give you until nightfall, and then I will have the E-Web cannon open fire.”

“Great,” I said.

The four of us exchanged some heated words. I tried my best to calm down Cara, who was extremely high strung in this situation. I definitely should’ve been far more so, but my brain was behaving and not making me relive my capture.

“I know who he is,” Din said.

“What?” I asked. 

“It’s Moff Gideon.”

“No,” Cara said. I looked at her.

“Moff Gideon was executed for war crimes,” I said.

“It’s him. He knew my name,” he said.

“What does that prove?” Cara asked.

“No one but Thessa has spoken that name since I was a child,” he said. I swallowed.

“On Mandalore?” Greef asked.

“I was not born on Mandalore,” Din responded.

“But you’re a Mandalorian,” Greef said.

“Mandalorian isn’t a race,” I said.

“It’s a creed,” Din said. He paused. “I was a foundling. They raised me in the Fighting Corps. I was treated as one of their own. When I came of age, I was sworn to the Creed. The only record of my family name was in the registers of Mandalore. Moff Gideon was an ISB Officer during the purge. That's how I know it's him.”

“That’s how he knows who we all are,” Cara said.

“If he’s saying he still needs us, that means he doesn’t have the child yet,” I said. “Maybe they got away safely.

“I was worried when the ugnaught didn’t respond, but if they’d captured the kid we’d already be dead,” Din said.

“Hail them again,” Cara said.

He did. “Nothing.”

“The link could be jammed,” I suggested.

The comlink crackled to life. “Kuiil has been terminated.” IG-11.

“What did you do?” Din asked, poison dripping in his voice.

“I am fulfilling my base function.”

“Which is?”

“To nurse and protect.”

As if on cue, explosions and shots erupted outside. Perfect. That IG unit was doing a number on the troopers out here, and as he skidded in on a stolen landspeeder, sending it barrelling into a group of troopers and a vehicle bind them, he’d officially created enough of a distraction to let us launch a little attack of our own. Maybe we would get out of here.

“Cover me,” Din said. Cara and I nodded, taking point by the window, picking off troopers as we could.

“Just like the good old days,” Cara said, clearly pretty excited to be taking out Imps again.

I was doing my best not to shake into bits. “Something like that,” I said. A fighter cockpit would be much, much nicer right now.

Din made his way to the E-Web, picked it up, and began taking down droves of troopers at a time. “Maker,” I said. That man surprises me sometimes with some of the things that he does that I find attractive. Cara and I fought off some troopers who had made it inside after they blew the entrance, easily enough.

But then things went south again. Gideon fired a shot, and the E-Web exploded. Time slowed down. Cara rushed out, and I followed. Din had been blasted flat on his back. It didn’t look good. That would’ve killed someone less armored than him, and I prayed the beskar would be enough to protect him from that.

“Stay with me, buddy,” Cara said as we dragged him inside. The IG unit and the child followed.

“Din, it’s gonna be fine, we’re going to be okay,” I said, taking his hand as we set him upright against some rubble. Greef had the IG unit cut open the grate.

“I’m not gonna make it,” Din choked out. “Go.”

Panic set in. “No, no, you’re gonna be fine,” I said, practically begging.

“You just got your bell rung,” Cara said, glibly. I reached around his neck, and pulled my hand away. It was covered in blood. Tears welled in my eyes.

“We’re gonna have to take that thing off,” Cara said, reaching for his helmet. I didn’t stop her, out of confusion and panic. But Din did.

“No. You leave me,” Din said, gasping. Tears rolled down my face.

“I can’t do that,” I said. “You’re going to be fine, you just have to let me--”

“Here.” He reached for something around his neck, taking off something. He handed me a pendant. “Here. When you get to the Mandalorian covert, you show them that. You tell them it’s from me.”

“Din,” I said, pleading.

“You tell them the foundling was in my protection, and they'll help you,” he said. “I love you, Thessa.”

I couldn’t fucking breathe. “We can make it,” Cara said, panic in her voice as well.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Greef said.

“I'm not gonna make it and you know it. You protect the child. I can hold them back long enough for you to escape. Let me have a warrior's death,” Din said.

“Not yet,” I choked out.

“We’re not leaving you,” Cara said.

“This is the Way.”

There was a tense moment of silence. A trooper, one I couldn’t immediately identify, entered the bar. They had a flamethrower. Maker, they had a flamethrower! I threw my body over Din, but the kid had other things in mind. I hadn’t even realized he had gotten out of the bag he was brought in, but there he was, pulling yet another miracle out of his tiny little robes. The flames stopped, as if by an invisible wall. With one final bit of effort, they were sent backwards, incinerating the trooper. The little one fell back, exhausted. I took a shaky, strained breath, then swallowed.

“Go,” Din said. “Go.”

I pressed my forehead to his helmet. “I love you too, Din.  _ Kar’tayli gar darasuum, _ ” I said.

The IG unit insisted on staying behind, handing the child over to me. I nodded.

“Promise me you’ll bring him,” I said.

“You have my word.”

Cara, Greef, and I entered the sewers. We started meandering around aimlessly for what seemed like hours. At some point, I stopped, and fell back and sat, unable to go on.

“Come on, Thessa,” Cara said. “This hurts me too. We need to keep moving or he’s sacrificed himself for nothing.”

I took a gasping breath, and nodded. She helped me up, and we continued on. I gripped the pendant that Din had handed me like it was keeping me alive. Eventually I re-tied the string and looped it around the child’s neck. He was the foundling, not me. He needed it.

Eventually, the three of us heard scratching down the halls behind us. We turned, ready to defend ourselves against troopers. But my heart skipped a beat as I saw IG-11. And Din. I let out a laugh, running over to him with the little one. Cara and I helped him walk, and I handed the child to IG-11.

“I thought I lost you,” I said, tears rolling down my face again.

“Can’t… get rid of me that easily,” he said, his smirk audible in his voice. That was exactly what I said to him when I woke up after I was kidnapped.

We continued to make our way through the sewers. None of us were certain where we were going, seeing as though most of us had never been down here and Din had only ever entered from another location. After a bit of meandering, Din could stand on his own again. The bacta IG-11 gave him must’ve been particularly strong, and rightly so. He must’ve seen somewhere familiar, because he began walking with more purpose. Then… we came across the pile of armor.

Din fell to his knees and picked up a discarded helmet. I placed a hand over my mouth, coming up and placing my other hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” I said, barely above a whisper.

“We should go,” Cara said quietly.

“You go. Take the ship,” Din responded. “I can’t leave it this way.”

I turned and looked at Cara. I was tempted to agree, and stay with him. Then Din stood, and addressed Greef. “Did you know about this?” he asked, launching into a heated argument with him. I tried to get between the two of them when someone interrupted us, making me just about jump out of my skin. I realized in that moment how anxious I was.

“It was not his fault.” A woman, another mandalorian with a slightly more ornate helmet and a short fur cape came out of a side room, and began picking up pieces of armor. “We revealed ourselves. We knew what could happen if we left the covert. The Imperials arrived shortly thereafter. This is what resulted.”

Din and the woman began talking. I gathered she was an armorer of some kind, based on the equipment she was working with. They began talking about the child, and what responsibilities would ensue with taking care of him. She spoke a word that I hadn’t heard in a long time; Jedi. Jedi… I’d heard that before. I made a mental note of it. I’d try to remember later when we weren’t in immediate danger. The armorer gave Din a signet, something he’d only offhandedly mentioned to me a couple of times. I smiled as she tacked it onto his armor. When she called Din and the child a clan of two, my heart swelled. Din looked over at me.

“It might be three,” he said. I grinned.

“I see,” the woman said. She looked at me briefly, nodded, and continued on her quick work and steady pacing. She sent IG-11 out into the hallway to keep guard while we finished up. IG handed the baby to Cara, who immediately handed him over to me.

“I don’t do the baby thing,” she mumbled.

The armorer sent us on our way with one more gift; the Rising Phoenix, something else Din had mentioned wanting to have at one point or another offhandedly. She gave the jetpack to IG-11, and we began what was hopefully the end of our journey. We made it to the lava river, and began heading downstream. We thought we were homefree until Din notified us there were stormtroopers flanking the exit to the flats. After some argument, IG-11 set down the things he was carrying, entered the lava river, and began to walk towards the mouth of the tunnel. I knew what he was doing, and I knew it was important, but it hurt a little bit to see him go. So was Din. Once the explosion passed, I looked over at him.

“You’re a little sad,” I said, reinforcing what the IG unit had said earlier. “It’s okay. I am, too.” I took his hand and squeezed a bit. He squeezed back.

Of course, nothing today has been easy. As soon as we exited the tunnel, the TIE fighter that Gideon had landed in swooped over us and fired shots at us. He missed, but he wouldn’t the second time. Din put on the jetpack.

“What are you doing? Are you sure you’re feeling up to that?” I asked.

“Don’t have a choice. I’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“You better be,  _ utreekov, _ ” I said, hitting him playfully on the arm. I was nervous for him, but we needed to get off this planet, and the Crest wasn’t about to beat a fighter like that in a dogfight.

I watched in incredible anxiety as he took off, using a grappling line to attach to the Moff’s fighter.

“What’d you call him?” Cara asked, eyes trained on the fighter. A charge flew out behind Din. He must’ve dropped it.

“Idiot,” I said, smiling. “I don’t know what I’ll do with myself if this doesn’t work. I can’t lose him.”

“I… don’t think you will,” Greef said. And just like that, another explosion went off on the side of the fighter, and Din launched off, coming back towards us with his jetpack. I picked up the child, and went out to meet him. The fighter crashed rather violently a few clicks away, and I took a sigh of relief. As soon as Din landed, I rushed over to hug him, the child between us.

“ _ Utreekov, _ huh?” he asked.

“You have to admit that was kind of a risky move,” I said. “Don’t almost die on me again, okay?”

“I’ll do my best,” he responded. I set the kid down and turned to face Cara and Greef. We chatted for a little while.

“Hey, uh, Cara, if you want to… come with us, I think--” I started, my tone getting more and more awkward as I spoke.

“Your boyfriend already talked to me. I’m coming,” she responded.

I stopped. “He did? Oh, stars I would’ve loved being a fly on the wall for that conversation,” I said, laughing a little. Din was not particularly tactful, as mentioned before. “Of course, maybe a couple days off so you can shake off your injuries,” I said to Din.

“That sounds good.” The little one grabbed onto Din’s ankle, and he picked him up. I tapped his nose with my finger, smiling at him.

“You, my friend, you will be welcome back into the Guild with open arms,” Greef said. “You two as well, if you so choose. So, go off, enjoy yourself. And when you're ready to return, you will have the pick of all quarries.”

Din and I looked at each other, remembering what the armorer had said. Din looked at the little one. “I’m afraid I have more pressing matters at hand,” he said.

Greef approached, running a finger along one of the little one’s ears. “I would say take care of this little one, but he might just take care of you. She will, too,” he said, gesturing at me.

“That’s the goal,” I responded.

Din, Cara, the little one, and I all made our way back to the ship, up into the cockpit. Din took off and jumped to hyperspace. I was glad to leave that place behind. That was the most stressful few days of my life. I’m glad we all got out of it safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! Come hang out with me on tumblr at spacegayofficial!


	12. Three's a Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I learned in this that I can't write threesomes, but like. That's not gonna stop me. I hope this scratches someone's itch!

A vacation. A well deserved one, too. Unable to decide myself, I left the choice up to Din and Cara. We ended up in a remote village just in the middle of nowhere enough that we wouldn’t be bothered on Chandrila. Din had landed the ship on the banks of a beautiful lake. I had taken a blanket and laid it out in the grass, sitting in the sun, watching the kid chase small creatures around.

“I could get used to this,” I said.

Din, who was of course working on the ship instead of relaxing, peaked his head out from part of the landing gear. “It’s quiet. The kid seems to like it,” he said.

I hummed. “He does. He’ll tire himself out chasing around these little bugs in no time,” I said. “That being said, if I have to see him eat another frog whole I’m gonna lose my mind.”

Din chuckled. “Did that to me the first time before we even got off Arvala-7,” he said.

Cara came out of the ship and leaned over the ramp to look at Din. “Hey, whatever you’re doing just made the power flicker,” she said.

“I know, I accidentally bumped a fuse down here. Thanks, though,” he said.

“You two made a good call, by the way,” I said. “Chandrila is beautiful. Maybe on our way out we can stop in Hanna City? And we can go on that date I mentioned?”

“Sounds good to me. I was there briefly right after the New Republic named Chandrila its capital, but I haven’t really gotten to see it,” Cara said.

“Yeah, we can do that,” Din added.

I sighed and laid back, staring up at the sky. It really couldn’t get any better than this. No more hunters after the kid, no more Imps trying to kill us, just the four of us. There were a couple of days immediately after the events on Nevarro that I didn’t even want to get out of bed. Processing everything that had happened and having my mind replay some of the moments was tough. I think it was hard on all of us. Din wasn’t himself, certainly, and while Cara was trying not to let anything show, I knew it was bothering her, too. But, now that we’ve had a little while to stretch our legs and relax and not worry about anything, everyone’s starting to return to normal.

“Din?” I asked, turning my head more in his direction so he could hear me.

“Hm?”

“Take a break, come here and sit with me,” I said. “You’ve been working on that landing gear since we got here.”

“It needs to be worked on,” he responded.

“Din, c’mere,” I said. “It’ll still be there later.”

I heard some clanking as he set down his tools. He walked over and sat down next to me. I sat up slightly and laid my head in his lap. He looked down at me and I smiled.

“Y’know, I was thinking, maybe later tonight, once the kid is asleep, maybe you could uh… show me a little more of what you can do with those ropes?” I asked, biting my lip playfully.

“Maybe,” he responded, starting to run his fingers through my hair. “I was just talking to Cara earlier today, and she has some interesting ideas, too.”

“Oh?” I asked. “Anything specific she mentioned?”

“Definitely, but I think we want to leave some of it as a surprise,” he responded, his smirk audible.

“Aw, just a little hint?” I asked.

“Hm…” he was quiet for a moment. “I’ll let you know it appears that Cara tends to play just as rough as I do.”

“Alright, that I expected,” I said. “Anything… new?”

He was quiet again, picking his words. “I will be showing you some more with the ropes,” he said, finally. “That’s all I can tell you for now. There’s nothing you won’t be able to handle. We’ll still have the same safeword setup, so if we cross a line you can always stop us.”

“Well, I’m already excited,” I responded, smiling up at him. “I love you, Din.”

“I love you too, Thessa.”

We stayed like that for a while. I couldn’t keep Din pinned down forever, though, and eventually he went back to working on whatever little project he could find. It was a beautiful day, and I’m sure the kid wished he could keep playing around in the grass forever, but unfortunately for him that day had to come to an end eventually. The sun set, and even though he was fighting it, I could tell he was tuckered out. I stood up and folded the blanket, placing it over my shoulder as I picked the little one up. He yawned.

“I thought you might be getting tired,” I said. “C’mon, let’s get you to bed.”

And to bed he went. I got him to lay down and sleep, and shut the door to his little alcove to keep the light, and the noise, out. I was starting to get a little bit antsy and excited about tonight. Cara spent a lot of time on board today, presumably prepping something, so I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to her about any of this. I wondered what she had up her sleeve. I wondered what Din had up  _ his, _ honestly. I have a fairly good idea of what he’s about, but I have no clue what Cara’s into beyond what Din mentioned to me earlier today. I took a deep breath to steady myself and walked back into the bedroom, where I assumed they’d be. I appeared to be wrong, however, and frowned a bit. Why would they be in the cockpit? I turned around and walked into a wall of beskar that scared the hell out of me.

“Maker!” I let out a laugh once I processed it was just Din. I didn’t hear him come up behind me at all. Before I could get another word out, he grabbed my upper arms and pushed me back into the bedroom.

“Same safeword as before,” he said. “Cara knows it too.”

“Alright,” I responded, nodding.

“There’ll be a slightly different system if either of us decide to gag you,” Cara’s voice came from behind Din. She entered the room, holding a couple of things. One, a strap on, with a fairly sizable toy attached to it, the other… something I couldn’t quite discern. I’m sure she’d tell me. Din placed me in the center of the room, then let go, and leaned against the wall near the door. Cara set down her things on top of the dresser. She turned and motioned to me.

“Go ahead and strip,” she said. “Keep your parties on. I wanna see how wet you get waiting for what we’re going to do to you.”

So I did, tossing off my shirt and pants, followed by my bra, in a pile off to the side. I took them all off quickly, maybe even eagerly. This was partially new territory for me, and it was exciting. I stood awkwardly nonetheless, waiting for further instruction.

“Tell me if anything’s too tight or you feel tingling, okay?” Din said as he approached with the same rope as last time. I grinned. He started wrapping it around me, a bit more substantially, like it wasn’t meant just to keep me restrained, and not quite as intricate. Wider bands of rope sat snugly around my chest above and below my breasts, and back over my shoulders, as well as around my arms, keeping my hands behind my back much like last time. “Feel alright?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good. Feet apart,” he said, and he kneeled next to my right leg. I complied, giving him room to work. He began wrapping another thick band of rope around my thigh, then another below that, splitting it into thirds more or less. After he was satisfied with those and had checked again with me if they were uncomfortable, they weren’t, he threaded a few more loops of rope through the outside of the bands on my leg, and the right side of the bands on my chest harness. After adding a little more rope and a couple more knots, those points were then tied to a metal ring he had produced from one of his many pockets, and attached that with a final, much more substantial length of rope, to… a hook in the ceiling I had failed to notice until just then. I blinked.

“That’s new right?” I asked.

“Part of why I was up here so much today,” Cara responded, smiling.

Din handed the rope off to Cara, and came back to my right side. “You’re still going to have weight on that leg,” he said. “Ready?”

I nodded, and Cara began pulling on the rope, lifting me slightly. Din began to adjust the ropes and knots he’d made so that, once Cara had pulled on the ropes sufficiently, I was nearly parallel with the ground, some weight still on my left leg. This position left me completely accessible to Din and Cara, making my mind race with ideas of what would come.

“Everything feel okay?” Din asked, checking the ropes one more time to make sure everything was in order.

“Yeah, surprisingly comfortable,” I responded, smiling a bit.

“Good, because you’re going to be up there for a while,” Cara responded, stepping around me and dragging one finger over my slit through my panties. I gasped. “Already excited, I see. Doesn’t take much to get you going, does it?” she asked. “What should we do to you first?”

“What do you… want to do to me first?” I asked, looking over at her. I wasn’t sure how she wanted to play this, anyway. What kind of rules was she setting? What did she and Din both have in mind?

“Mm, good answer,” she responded. She grabbed whatever the other thing was that she brought in with her strap on. “This… is the somewhat modified inner workings of a vibroknife.” She switched it on and it started buzzing, fairly loud. “Stronger than your average vibrator. A lot more fun in my opinion.” She lightly dragged it across my chest, causing my nipples to harden as she did, then down my belly and up again. “I want to make you cum so much you forget your own name. Sound good?” she asked.

My breathing already quickened somewhat. “Yes,” I responded breathily.

She smirked. “You really got a good one, Mando,” she said to Din. “Now, I know he likes to edge you, but I’m not that nice. Cum all you want, you don’t need permission from me.” And with that, she pressed the toy over my panties directly on my clit, no teasing, no testing the waters, and just kept it there. I threw my head back as much as I could and moaned out, my eyes screwing shut as I tried to manage the amount of stimulation I was getting. It was probably the most intense feeling I’ve ever experienced. And because of this, I was in the throes of my first orgasm within a few seconds.

“Oh, ffffffuck!” was all I managed to articulate, my muscles tensing and my left knee giving out slightly under the weight was on it.

“Maker, that was fast,” Cara mused, turning the toy off. I tried to catch my breath, starting to put my weight back on my leg.

“That hook’s gonna be able to hold me, right?” I asked, panting, smiling a little bit.

“It can hold my full weight with the armor on, you’ll be fine,” Din chimed in.

“Don’t get too comfortable, we’re not done. That was one, and you probably remember your name still,” Cara said, flipping the toy on again. “Get ready.”

She did not give me time to get ready. I was definitely not all the way back down from my last climax, so when the toy made contact with my clit again it practically made me scream out. It was an interesting mix of conflicting sensations, mostly pleasure but some… not quite pain, but discomfort from the sheer intensity of the vibrations. It took me slightly longer to reach a climax this time, a few minutes as opposed to a few seconds.

“Oh fuck, I’m gonna cum again, fuck!” I shouted, moaning as I hit my second climax. My body shuddered, muscles in my abdomen shaking as I rode out the orgasm. But unlike last time, she didn’t let up. She kept the toy firmly against me, unrelenting. I squirmed instinctually to try and lessen the sensation, but it was no use. I couldn’t get enough leverage in this position.

“I told you I wasn’t that nice,” she said, her hand tracing up my belly, over one of my tits, then roughly pinched my nipple. I groaned, my hips wriggling, unable to escape the toy. I was a moaning, panting mess already, and we’d just started. This was going to be an endurance test. Just as I was thinking that, Cara pushed my panties to the side and slipped a single finger into my pussy, making me moan slightly louder, my walls flexing against it almost as if to acknowledge her finger’s presence. Seemingly satisfied with that reaction, she slipped in a second finger, and curled them up, rubbing against a spot inside me that immediately sent me spinning into my third orgasm. I couldn’t make my mouth say words, all I could manage was nearly a scream, my walls clamping down around Cara’s fingers, my body quaking under her touch. Once again, she didn’t stop. I was in a complete daze at this point. Nothing felt real, the edges of my vision blurred, all I could process was this intensely pleasurable, almost painful sensation coming from my core. I wasn’t sure if I could take much more of this, and hopefully my exhaustion was obvious enough.

After several more minutes of the toy planted firmly against me, and Cara’s fingers working rhythmically against the sensitive spot inside, I came a fourth time, an exhausted moan leaving my lips. Cara pulled her fingers away, then after holding the toy to me for just a few seconds after I had ridden that climax out, turned the toy off. I groaned in relief, suddenly aware of every muscle in my body burning from having been so tense that entire time. Cara took a pace and stood closer to my head, bringing her fingers to my mouth. I took them in, licking and sucking them clean.

“Alright, babe, catch your breath,” Cara said, setting the toy down. “Then we’ll move on.”

I grinned, my breathing slowly steadying. “What’s next?”

“That depends a little bit,” she said. “What do you think, Mando?”

Din came back over, stood behind me, and placed his gloved hand on my hip. “I say we let her down, put her mouth to good use. Not making so much noise,” he said. I looked up over my shoulder at him, smile still on my face.

“Good idea, but put her mouth to work doing what?” she asked, looking me over. “We could just gag her and both have at it.”

I blinked and looked over at her, kind of surprised by her statement. “At… the same time?” I asked, without really thinking about it first. They way they were just idly standing over me and chatting about this was getting me going again, surprisingly, even though I still felt pretty spent.

Cara looked at Din, and smirked. “That’s an idea. I like it,” she said. “If you’ll let our plaything down, I’m going to go grab something.”

With that, Cara left the room, and Din undid the knot at the hook in the ceiling and slowly let me down. He removed the rope entirely from my leg and the loops from the side of my chest harness, but kept the harness in tact.

“Is that still comfortable?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. A little better now that it’s not holding me up,” I said, smiling.

“Alright, sweet thing, you ready to get to work?” Cara asked, returning with a bottle. Lube. I bit my lip, and nodded as a response. “I’m going to wait until I have you worked out a little before we gag you. Based on your reaction a second ago I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is the first time you’ve done anal.”

“Uh, it is,” I responded.

“Excellent, we get to do a few new things tonight,” she said, grinning. She grabbed the knots of my chest harness on my back, and pushed me over the bed. “Stay there, don’t move.” I complied, resting my head against the bed so I could kind of see what was going on. Din had a length of rope in his hands, tying a larger-than-usual knot in the middle of the length. Cara was putting on her strap on. Once she was done, she came back over, bottle of lube in hand.

“I’m going to start very slow. Just relax, and tell me if I’m going too fast or it hurts or anything, okay?” she asked, yanking down my panties and roughly handling the flesh of one of my asscheeks.

“Got it,” I responded.

“Alright, here we go,” she said. After a moment I felt a cool, slick finger rub some of the lubricant into my asshole, then push inside slightly. I hummed a bit at the unfamiliar feeling. It was surprisingly pleasant, not that I wasn’t expecting it to be. She was being very generous with the lube, adding more and more if there was even a hint of resistance against her. I was doing my best to keep my muscles relaxed and let her do her work unhindered. After a while of working her single finger in, back and forth, deeper and deeper, she began working a second finger in alongside it. The same ritual ensued--adding more lube, gradually working it in. Once the two fingers were in as deep as they could go, she gently, gradually spread them, stretching the muscles there slightly. I hummed again, that stretching sensation hinting to me that this was going to be a fun little while here. Cara continued on, working in a third finger, repeating the slight stretching motion, then she paused.

“All good?” she asked me.

“Yeah,” I responded. “Great, even.”

“Good, then it’s my turn,” she said, slowly withdrawing her fingers, applying more lube to my ass, and pressing the tip of her strap on to my hole. “Ready?” she asked. I nodded. She began to press in, slowly, pausing every so often, applying more lube, waiting for me to relax and adjust to the girth of her toy. I made a mental note to gift her more lube sometime. Surely she’d be out by the time we were done here. Before I knew it, she had slid in all the way to the base, and began pulling out again. I moaned at the sensation of fullness and pleasure. It was very new, yes, but decidedly very good.

Cara then pulled me upright by my chest harness, staying buried in my ass, and turned us a bit. Din came over, holding up the rope he’d tied a knot in the middle of. “Open,” he said. I did, and he placed the knot in my mouth, tying the other ends of the rope behind my head. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but I was definitely into it. He then produced the piece of cloth we usually used as a blindfold. “Hold on to this. If you feel like you need to use the safeword, drop it. Understand?” he asked. I nodded, and he reached around me, pressing it into my palm. I grabbed onto it, tight, not wanting to accidentally drop it and cause problems.

Cara then picked me up. Holy shit, she just picked me up, with practically no effort on her part, and laid back on the bed, spreading my legs for the next piece in this little puzzle we were putting together. Din climbed up on the bed, freeing his cock from his pants as he did. He positioned himself between my legs, lined himself up with my pussy, and, slower than he usually did, pushed in until he was completely sheathed. I moaned out as he did, muffled by the gag. He groaned, an absolutely intoxicating noise I would never get tired of hearing.

“Tighter than usual,” he quipped, his gloved hand coming to my hair and pulling me back up, Cara carefully following as not to slip out. I had never felt fuller in my life. It already felt extremely good, and they hadn’t even moved yet. The two got into comfortable positions, and finally began thrusting, Din a little quicker than Cara, who seemed to be taking some care with the fact this is the first time I’d done… any of this. I nearly screamed as they did, though, the sensation immediate and overwhelming. I was already pretty oversensitive from earlier, and this definitely took advantage of that. My head rolled back, eyes shutting as I focused on the sensation. Din hit a sweet spot, and my hips bucked, making him groan out as well.

“Gag doesn’t make her much quieter,” Cara said, panting slightly.

“Don’t think anything can make her be quiet,” Din said teasingly. I, again, could hear that smirk on his face. He reached between us and took one of my nipples between his fingers, and pinched. I moaned again, my chest pressing into his touch. “See what I mean?”

Cara’s hands reached around my hips, beginning to move a little bit faster. She brought a hand all the way around, though, and began to rub my clit, and I let out a moan that bordered on a scream at the sudden, almost sharp sensation. She laughed a little. “I certainly do.” She continued to rub my overstimulated bundle of nerves, though, jolting me towards my fifth climax of the night. I tried to articulate that, but the gag just made it sound like various, quicker moans.

“Can’t understand you, princess,” Cara said, punctuating her sentence by adjusting her grip and pinching my clit. The combination of that gesture and what she said sent me over the edge, my walls flexing around Din, causing him to moan, which only spurred me on. I was also pulsing around Cara’s toy, making her pause her thrusting intermittently. She took her fingers away for a moment to apply a little bit more lube.

“Not done… yet,” Din said, readjusting his position on the bed to thrust a little bit faster. He hit another sweet spot inside me, making my walls flutter around him. Cara returned her fingers to my clit, and I threatened to turn into jelly between the two of them. If it weren’t for Din tightening his grip on my hair, I would’ve fallen over. It continued just like this for a while, Cara gradually increasing her pace as I got more and more used to her presence, Din pounding relentlessly into sweet spots, and Cara’s fingers working my abused clit. It didn’t take too long before I was threatening to hit my sixth climax, and by the groans and curses coming from Din, he was close to his own, as well.

“F-fuck, Thessa!” Din groaned, roughly thrusting up and pausing, gripping my hair and pressing his forehead to mine. He came, and that pushed me over the edge too. My eyes practically rolled back into my head, my sixth climax being by far the most overwhelming. I was absolutely exhausted. Cara was the first to slip out of me, making me whimper a bit at the sudden empty feeling. I heard her take off her harness and toss it to the side. Din slowly slipped out of me as well, causing another identical sound.

Din left the room to grab a cloth to clean us up, and Cara untied the gag from my mouth. I flexed my jaw, sitting back as I did.

“Holy shit,” I managed to pant out, trying to catch my breath again. “I’m gonna be sore.”

“Hell yeah you will be,” Cara responded. Din came back and gently cleaned me up. It was such a simple, common sense gesture, but it was honestly one of the sweetest things he did. I didn’t know why I found it so charming. Once he was done there, he started untying my chest harness.

“Cara,” I said as he worked, “you’re not even undressed, surely you didn’t cum.”

“I sure haven’t,” she said. “Wanna fix that?”

I smirked. “You read my mind.” Once Din had undone the ropes and taken them aside, I stretched my arms, then crawled over the bed a little bit to pull off Cara’s pants as she removed her top. The clothes were tossed hurriedly on the floor, and I got to work. I was a little bit out of practice going down on someone with my same anatomy, but pussies don’t change much, last time I checked.

I dipped down between her legs, running my hands over her thighs. I brought one hand to her folds, tracing lightly. She was wetter than Manaan, already slick and glistening. I lightly brushed my finger over her clit, eliciting a quiet, shuddery moan from her lips. I removed my hand, and slowly licked up her slit, my tongue flat against her. Her leg came up and over my shoulder, and one of her hands found purchase in my hair. This would be a very dangerous position to be in at just about any other time; this woman could  _ kick ass. _

I brought my hand back, slowly slipping a single finger into her entrance. I started licking more targeted circles around her clit. She moaned again, her head falling back onto the pillow. Her hips moved under me, pressing closer into my face. I responded by slipping a second finger inside, curling them, moving slightly in search of a sensitive spot. Her grip suddenly tightened in my hair, her leg pressing against my back, when I found it. I smiled slightly and started alternating between licking over her clit and sucking the bud firmly but gently.

She groaned. “Mando, you’re lucky to be able to get head like this whenever you want,” she said, her tone breathy and quiet.

“She’s quite talented with it,” Din responded.

Keeping my pace with my fingers, I pulled my face away enough to speak. “Y’know, we could make this a regular thing,” I said. “I’m having a blast.” I went back to what I was doing, earning another moan from Cara.

“Maker,” she sighed. “I’m in.” Her walls fluttered around my fingers, and I knew she was getting close. I picked up my pace just a little bit, and she made a slightly more emphatic noise.

Cara’s grip on my hair pushed my face unrelentingly into her cunt, and her walls clamped down around my fingers, interrupting my rhythm. I continued my pace, though, not wanting to let up until she let my head go. She let out a guttural sound, nearly a growl, and her hips bucked into my face. Just as I was thinking I needed to come up for air, she let go of my hair and I pulled back, gasping for air. Her leg fell from my back, and she untangled her fingers from my hair.

“ _ Fuck, _ Thessa, that was amazing,” she said. I grinned, falling to my side and laying on the bed next to her. I looked up at Din, and waved at him to come join us. He nodded and started taking off his armor.

“I’m a little out of practice,” I said, “but I’m glad.”

“Maker, if that’s you rusty, I wanna see what you’re like well-practiced,” she said. “I volunteer to be the one you practice on.” She laughed a little bit.

“Well, like I said, we could make this a regular thing,” I responded. “As long as you’re okay with that, Din?”

He came over to the bed and Cara and I scooted over to make room for him. He laid down next to me, wrapping an arm around me. “Don’t see why not,” he said. “This is fun.”

“Awesome,” I said, pressing my forehead to his helmet. “Can’t wait to see what you two come up with next.”

“We’ll have a little bit more time to plan,” Din said. “Should be interesting.”

I hummed a positive response, and snuggled into bed, against Din, but pulling Cara into the pile. Yeah, I could get used to this, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you guys for reading! Sorry this one took so long to come up, but school started and I'm starting to run out of creative steam. I have a couple more scene ideas that'll translate into two or three more chapters, but I am considering going back and rewriting/seriously revising bits and pieces of this fic. So expect a couple more updates that will be slightly spread out, then a longer hiatus for me going back and seriously changing some things. I will not post individual chapters of that one; it'll all go up at once, then if I continue to have ideas (which I probably will) I'll update chapter by chapter after that. I haven't decided if it'll be here or under a new title, but I'll keep you guys updated as I think about it. Anyway, in the meantime, come hang out with me on my tumblr at spacegayofficial ! Love y'all!


	13. Date Night

We had landed in a bay in Hanna City. Din and I were going to go on a date tonight, an idea that gave me butterflies. I’m not sure why it had me so excited, it was a pretty mundane thing to do. But to be fair, our relationship was anything but mundane. Being able to do something so simple was just what we needed, though. Din and I were working on calibrating some things in the cockpit to kill time before we went out.

“Can I… ask you something?” Din asked, looking away from the panel as it processed the input he’d just given it.

“Anything,” I answered.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. But it’s been… bothering me,” he said. “On Nevarro, Gideon said you had been captured. Is that true?”

Oh. Right. I took a deep breath, trying to focus, to get my brain to let me talk about it without breaking down. “It is,” I managed to say after a moment. “I… honestly don’t remember a lot of it. It was the… time that I crashed. Um.” I paused, taking another breath. I couldn’t even remember what happened, but it was so hard to talk about. I couldn’t figure out why.

“Thessa, if it’s too much, you don’t have to say anything,” Din said.

I shook my head. “No, I want to.” I sat forward in the co-pilot’s chair, and looked out through the viewport. “I managed to survive the crash, and keep troopers away from me for a while, but eventually a couple snuck up on me. I thought I was dead. But they… captured me instead,” I said. “I don’t know why. I’m not special, I didn’t know anything more than any of the other rebels down there, but they did. Unfortunately that means I have them to thank for not letting me bleed out from that shrapnel.” Another measured breath. “But I don’t remember pretty much anything else. I do remember feeling just… pure rage. I managed to escape and commandeer a TIE fighter to get back to a base.”

Din was quiet. He placed a hand on my knee, and I flinched instinctively. He pulled his hand away, but I grabbed it before he got too far and held it. “I’m sorry. That sounds like a lot,” he said.

“It was. But like I said, I just… do not remember most of my time being on an Imperial cruiser,” I said. “I know I was on one. I was captured and taken into a shuttle almost immediately. Then… a whole lot of nothing. Anger. Then I was jumping into a TIE fighter dodging blaster fire.”

Another moment of silence. “That’s strange,” he said. “Did… you have any other injuries? Besides what you got in the crash.”

I nodded. “Yeah, scrapes, bruises, some superficial cuts, a pretty nasty black eye. I felt like shit for a while after the fact,” I responded. “So clearly they were trying to get something out of me. I just don’t know what, or why, or how.”

“Hm.” He squeezed my hand a bit.

“Yeah. I’d done a pretty good job of forgetting that part had even happened. It seriously bothers me that I don’t remember it,” I said. “I’d really love to know what made me so important that Moff Gideon knew I was captured.”

Din nodded. “Well, if you want to talk about it any more, I’m here,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said. “Same for you.” I paused, and looked over at the screen displaying the information we needed for our calibrations. “Do you think you can get the rest of this? I think I’m going to start getting ready,” I said.

“Yeah, I can handle it. I’ll come down when it’s done, then we can go,” he responded.

I squeezed his hand and let go, getting up and going down the ladder to the hold. Cara and the kid were hanging out. She’d gotten much better with doing the, as she put it, ‘baby thing’ recently. She’d even agreed to watch him while we were out tonight. I appreciated that, and so did Din, I’m sure; we both would much rather leave him with someone we trusted as much as her than at some daycare or something. Or locked in the ship by himself for hours on end, which I have convinced Din to stop doing altogether.

I went into our bedroom and dug around in my drawer for that dress I had bought what felt like eons ago, even though it had only been maybe two weeks. I also found my small collection of makeup; I never wore it, but I had some for special occasions like this one. Lipstick, eyeliner, mascara. That’s it. Didn’t feel like I needed anything else. I grabbed the dress, my makeup, clean panties, deliberately skipping the bra for several reasons, and a towel before heading to the refresher to shower and get ready. I took a while longer in the shower than was maybe absolutely necessary. I needed to relax a little after that conversation I had with Din about my… incident. I took my time washing my hair, letting conditioner soak in it for a little while. I got out and dried my hair, then pulled on my panties, then my dress. I carefully applied my makeup, taking my lipstick with me. I did one last double check in the mirror. The dress fit me perfectly, long but not so long I would be tripping over it, and the neckline was deep enough that I could tease Din tonight, but not so deep my tits were going to be falling out. Did I mention it was gorgeous?

I stepped out of the refresher somewhat nervously, knowing that Din would be well past done with the calibrations we had started by now. And I was right--he was down in the hold, leaned against the wall, chatting with Cara about something, but the conversation quickly stopped. Both were looking at me, and of course I couldn’t tell what look Din had on his face, but Cara’s went from dumbfounded quickly to a smirk. She then whistled. I laughed a little.

Din stood from leaning on the wall and just… looked at me. I grinned, and waved. “Hello? Still in there?” I asked.

There was a pause. “ _ Mesh’la, _ ” he said, finally.

I smiled. Mando’a for beautiful. “Thank you,” I said. “I’ve been saving this dress for a special occasion and this seemed appropriate.” I took a step towards Din, and he held out his arm, which I took. I stopped and turned to Cara.

“I’ll be fine, you two have fun,” she said. “Just don’t deafen me while you’re fucking later tonight.”

I laughed. “I would usually say that’s presumptuous,” I responded. “If you need us we have comms. Don’t let the kid kill himself.”

“Copy that,” she responded, giving a sarcastic salute. “Go! Have fun!”

“We’ll be back,” Din said before we walked together out into town.

Hanna City was beautiful, still flourishing even though it was no longer the capital of the New Republic. Despite the fact it was getting late in the evening, it was still busy, with a marketplace full of people, music pouring out of cantinas, and lights lining the streets. We came to an intersection and paused, looking around at our options.

“Thoughts?” Din asked.

I shrugged. “I’m hungry, I know that you’re… limited in that regard.”

He hummed a response. “I ate before we left. I’ll be fine.”

“Alright, well, let’s just… walk around and see what jumps out at us, hm?” I asked, looking around the intersection. “That way looks fine.”

So we headed aimlessly into the city. I held on to Din’s arm as we walked, which earned us some interesting glances from onlookers. I would be lying if I said I didn’t kind of love it. Why was a Mandalorian here? What did he want? Who was  _ she _ ? It also meant people would probably leave us the hell alone. Not that it would be too big of a deal if they didn’t; Din was still armed to the teeth. Eventually we found a place that seemed nice enough. I wouldn’t look out of place in my dress. Din would look out of place, but that’s just because he’s a shiny mass of beskar armor who kind of looks out of place everywhere except that covert on Nevarro. We sat down, and I ordered a drink and perused their menu.

“Thank you for coming out with me tonight,” I said. “I know it’s not your usual thing.”

“Of course,” he said. “You look amazing, Thessa.”

I smiled over the menu. “Thank you. You do too, you know,” I said. “Armor and all.”

“I… appreciate the sentiment,” he said.

“No sentiment, just the truth,” I said. “You know, the first time I saw you I got butterflies. You sort of snuck up on me, I didn’t hear you come in, but there was… something about how your presence fills the room. It sounded dumb then, but it seemed to have worked out pretty well.”

He was quiet for a moment, and reached a hand across the table. I met him halfway with my own. “I agree.”

A waiter came around and gave me my drink and took my order. He offered to take Din’s, but he politely refused. I started sipping my drink. Fruity, not too strong, but strong enough that I’d be tipsy if I finished it fast enough.

“Hey, here’s a question for you,” I said. “If the kid’s your foundling, does he need a helmet like yours?”

Din nodded. “Eventually. He’s still… technically too young, but also…”

“The ears?”

“The ears.”

I laughed a little. “I’m sure that you’ll get it figured out,” I said. “Besides, the armorer we spoke to on Nevarro there seemed to have a plan for you somewhat. Kind of vague, but on the right track.”

He nodded again. “I need to go back and speak with her eventually.”

“Yeah, now that it’s safe,” I said. I took another sip of my drink. “Anyway, not to bring the mood down.”

“Can I ask you something?” Din asked. “Not as heavy as earlier.”

“That’s usually what happens on dates,” I responded, taking another sip of my drink.

“You’ve always let me lead things, so it’s never come up,” he began. “But, what are you into that we haven’t done?”

“That’s a good question,” I responded, sighing. “Hm. Well, compounding on what we already know, you can probably go a little rougher, honestly, I’m not fragile.” I smiled playfully and deliberately leaned in with my elbows on the table under me, pushing my chest out to make my cleavage more pronounced. Another sip, and I continued. “Otherwise… I’m not sure. I’m really down for just about anything. I… wouldn’t mind turning the tables on you sometime, though. If you’re comfortable with it. And not tonight.”

His visor appeared to be looking straight on, but I could tell by the way he hesitated that he was distracted by my teasing. “We’ll have to see about that,” he responded, but didn’t sound disinterested.

“What about you?” I asked. “I get the general idea of what you’re about, but you have to have some… fantasies or something, right?”

There was a pause, and in it my food came. I thanked the waiter and began eating, waiting for Din’s response.

“I would enjoy hunting you down,” he said, his tone shifting in a way that made me shiver.

“What do you mean?” I asked, taking another bite of my food, followed by a sip of my drink.

“Drop you off somewhere, let you take a while to hide,” he said. “Then I’d take my time finding you, backing you into a corner, and when I found you, I’d make you my fucktoy.”

Was it hot in here? I squeezed my thighs together slightly, but grinned up at him all the same. “That sounds fun,” I said, taking another bite. I ran my tongue over my fork, slowly, really trying to tease Din as much as I could.

“Does it?” he asked, his head tilting. “I won’t go easy on you.”

“I did just say I’m not fragile,” I responded, downing the rest of my drink. For better or for worse my food prevented me from getting even a little bit tipsy.

“We might find out the extent of that,” he said. “See how long you can take being tied to the bed with your ass in the air, getting spanked until you’re sobbing.” I discreetly tried to cross my legs, but his own stopped me, preventing me from getting any minor relief. “How long you can take me fucking your face, holding you down until you gag, drool all down that pretty neck of yours. How many times I can edge you in a day, how long it takes before you can’t think straight. Might not even let you cum if you don’t behave.”

I bit my lip, feeling my cheeks heat up a little bit. I took a few bites of my food before I spoke again. “You’re not making it sound any less fun,” I finally said. “But that certainly answers my question.”

There was another pause as I ate some more of my food. “I have another question,” I said.

“Sure.”

“Where… what’s the line with the… clothes thing? I know you can’t show your face, that’s a gimme,” I said. “But like… I’ve seen your dick. But you haven’t ever let me see your hands, for instance. You always have your gloves back on before you take off my blindfold.”

He nodded. “The line is really just the helmet,” he responded. “Habit, I guess. The way I was raised…clothes don’t matter so much, you get injured, sometimes they need to come off. The helmet, I can remove it alone or in the presence of a foundling I’ve adopted. Or a spouse, but…”

“They’d have to be Mandalorian,” I said, finishing the sentence for him. I finished up the food on my plate. “What does that… take? I mean, do you have to start at a young age or can anyone convert?”

“ _ Cin vhetin, _ ” he responded. “Clean slate. Someone can convert at any time.”

“What if I did?”

He looked at me. “You… could,” he said, some cross between confusion and surprise in his voice. “You would need a lot of training first.”

I shrugged. “Something to think about.”

He nodded, and shifted in his seat--I could tell he was thinking about what I just said. The waiter came by again and took my empty plate, leaving the check. Din set a few credits down, then stood, offering his hand to me. I took it and stood as well, and we left the restaurant.

“Let’s take our time going back,” I said. “It’s a beautiful night, we have nowhere to be.”

He nodded in agreement and we meandered around the city, peeking in shop windows, watching drunk people stumble out of bars, taking in the scenery.

“We should do this more often,” I said. “Going out, just the two of us. Not to do work or anything.”

“It’s been nice,” he said. “I don’t know how often we’ll be able to, but yeah, I agree.”

In that moment I remembered what he had said earlier, about hunting me down, and a grin spread across my face. I let go of his arm and gestured for him to follow me, turning my back to him as I started to walk back to the ship. He got the gist, following close enough he wouldn’t lose me entirely, but far enough that it quickly felt intimidating and thrilling. If it were anyone else I’d assume they were following me with malicious intent. I looked over my shoulder at some point and smiled at him, innocently enough. I turned the corner and the ship was in sight. Somehow in that two seconds it took me to look back at him then back at the ship, he’d closed the gap between us and grabbed my shoulder. I gasped as he turned me to face him. Then he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. I made a surprised noise, and wriggled playfully in his grip.

“Um, excuse me,” I said sarcastically, playfully hitting his back as he carried me.

“If you tease me for one more second,” he said in a warning tone.

“So what was it, making you follow me like that, showing off my tongue, or how good my tits look tonight?” I asked, definitely teasing him for one more second.

With that he landed one hard swat on my ass. I made a noise between a gasp and a moan. He started the walk up the ramp into the ship. The kid’s alcove was closed, but we both got quiet and paused what we were doing to open it and make sure he was asleep in there. He was, thank goodness. Din closed that door again and peaked up into the cockpit where the lights were still on.

“We’re back,” he said, loud enough for Cara to hear but quiet enough it shouldn’t wake the kid. There wasn’t a response, so she may have fallen asleep, but we didn’t bother checking. Din carried me into the bedroom and shut the door behind us, locking it.

“We’ve established that’s not much of a punishment,” I said, referring to the spank.

“I know, but that’s all I had available,” he said, his voice switching to that low and gravelly tone. He threw me on the bed, and I landed with an ‘oof’ and a bounce. He was on top of me before I had a chance to reorient myself, his fingers running under the edge of the neckline of my dress. “You’re the biggest fucking tease in the galaxy.”

I grabbed his hand and splayed it out. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, bringing his hand to my mouth, starting to suck on two fingers, looking at him through his visor. I ran my tongue over the seams of his glove, taking my time as I did. I was having a hard time getting a read on him in this situation, which I’d been getting much better at lately.

He let me keep doing this for a while before he took his hand back and grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks together. “You’ll stop if you know what’s good for you,” he growled.

I smiled as best I could given the position I was in. “Din, you of all people should know I do  _ not  _ know what’s good for me,” I responded.

His head tilted down, and he pushed the neckline of my dress out of the way to reveal my breasts. He ran his thumb over one nipple, and once it was hard under his touch, pinched it, hard, earning a moan from me. “No self preservation whatsoever,” he said. “So little you made it this easy for your tits to fall out of your dress.” He twisted it, making me moan again, more emphatically. “I bet you’re already wet, too. Already need me to fuck you until you can’t say anything but my name,” he said, releasing his grip on my nipple.

“Why don’t you find out?” I asked, still grinning, spreading my legs a little under him, pulling my skirt up.

He let go of my face, but grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled me closer to him. “We need to do something about that mouth,” he said. “Why don’t you do something useful with it, like sucking my cock?”

A comeback to that hit me like a ton of bricks. My grin widened. “Make me.”

I told him I wasn’t fragile, and I knew this was going to fast track me proving that to him by making him go rougher on me. And that he was. He pulled me by my hair off of the bed and down on my knees. He used his free hand to fumble with his belt, quickly freeing his already hard erection from his pants. He tugged me forward expectantly, and I looked up at him, making no move to comply. I placed my hands on his still-armored thighs and waited. He then yanked my head forward again.

“If you don’t do as you’re told, there’ll be consequences you  _ won’t _ like,” he snapped. “Do you  _ want _ all of your orgasms ruined?”

I blinked. “No,” I said, squeezing my legs together slightly under me. This was  _ very  _ intimidating and  _ very, very _ hot.

“ _ Ke borari. _ ” Get to work. There had to be some satisfaction for him in this, getting me to shut the hell up and work with him. And if taking a few commands and getting my hair pulled was the price I had to pay for getting him worked up like this… well, I’d pay it every time. I slid my hands up his thighs and took his cock in one hand, taking one cursory stroke before bringing my head forward, pushed along a little bit by Din’s hand still in my hair. I licked over the head, looking up at him as I did, trying my best to make eye contact with him through his visor. I wrapped my lips around him, just the head though, and sucked lightly. This was definitely teasing, still, but it earned me a beautiful, frustrated groan from him. I tried to remove my other hand from his thigh to go between my own, but before I could get very far at all his free hand was around my wrist, placing it back on his leg.

“Keep that right there,” he grunted. “I haven’t decided if you get to cum or not.”

I made a disappointed hum, which made him groan a little bit. I started working more of him into my mouth, steadily. Once he was well into my mouth and I was working my tongue around him, feeling over the veins and ridges, his grip suddenly tightened in my hair and he forced me down to the hilt. I moved my other hand away quickly, gripping on his thighs like I would float away otherwise. I tried my best to breathe through my nose, but even that wasn’t working out well, and just at the point I was going to tap him to let me breathe, he let up, pulling me off of him. I gagged a little, then gasped for breath, glancing at the string of spit bridging between my mouth and the head of his cock. I was slightly surprised when that sent a surge of need directly to my cunt, but I was also fairly convinced that this man could shoot me and I’d find it arousing. I smiled at him a little bit before trying to go back to what I was doing, but as soon as I had him in my mouth again, he forced me down again.

“ _ Fuck _ , Thessa, your throat feels so good,” he groaned, his hips bucking up into my face. I did my best to swallow at that moment, knowing my throat muscles flexing around him would feel amazing. And based on the moan that came from him, I was proven right. He let up again, but didn’t pull me entirely off. I started working my tongue over him again, humming when I felt him twitch in my mouth. It continued in this pattern for a little while; him forcing me down, me trying not to suffocate, then me sucking and running my tongue over his member.

Eventually he spoke again. “Wanna… fuck your mouth,” he mumbled, his cock twitching in my mouth again.

I pushed back against his hand, off of him entirely. “Then do it,” I said, panting a bit, tilting my chin up to look at him.

He made a growling noise and pulled my hair back again, making me take a few steps back on my knees so he could stand. I looked up at him and opened my mouth, tongue out, my head tilted up just enough so that he could get down my throat easier. My gag reflex would just have to deal with it, not that it was too terribly sensitive in the first place. With that, though, he set the head of his cock on my tongue and started fucking my mouth, making me gag intermittently, my spit covering my chin. He would stop occasionally to let me catch my breath and work with my tongue, but would fairly quickly return to using my throat. Something about this situation, like with so many others before it with Din in control, had me so turned on my panties had to just be soaked by now.

After what felt like an eternity of this, partly because of my frustration but also because of my regular inability to take a full breath, he pulled himself completely out of my mouth. I immediately shot my hand forward, stroking quickly as he came. He moaned my name, grunting as he watched his cum cover my face and tits. Did he always cum this much? It seemed like a lot. Didn’t make it any less hot. He released my hair, sat back down on the edge of the bed, and I caught my breath, wiping the spit off my chin with the back of my hand, along with some cum that had landed there.

“Fuck,” I said finally. “Bet my makeup’s ruined.”

He grunted a response, recomposing himself enough to grab a dry towel out of a nearby drawer to hand to me. I wiped off most of the cum, just enough to make sure I wouldn’t make a complete mess of the sheets or… whatever, and tossed it aside. He moved back on the bed, sitting against the wall at the head of the bed, and patted the space between his legs after, unfortunately for me, and at least for now, stuffing his dick back in his pants. I stood, coming over and crawling on the bed, facing him still. He lifted my skirt, pulling my dress over my head and tossing it to the side.

“Come here,” he said. I did as I was told, leaning up against him, his chestplate cold against my back but quickly warming. I spread my legs, the cool air on the cloth of my panties giving away just how wet I was.

“Stars, you’re nearly dripping,” he mused. “Did you like me fucking your face like that?”

I hummed. “Kinda,” I said, grinning. He slid his hands over my waist, reaching down, his gloved fingers tracing a line up my slit. I moaned, realizing how sensitive and worked up I was. He grabbed the waistband of my panties and pulled them off of me with my help, tossing them in the pile with my dress. He moved his hand in to do something, but I grabbed his wrist. “Wait, um… can you… take off your gloves?” I asked, biting my lip.

He tilted his head, but didn’t say anything, considering my request. Then he unlatched something on his wrists, and slowly, finger by finger, pulled off his gloves. His skin was a beautiful tan, even with it not seeing the light of a sun in decades. They were scarred and calloused, as I expected them to be. I gently grabbed one of his hands, studying it, turning it over in mine, tracing my fingers over the lines of his palms and the scars on the back. I pulled it up to my mouth and kissed his palm, smiling, probably like a complete dumbass. This was… some bizarre new form of intimacy, him letting me see his skin like this.

“I’m not done yet,  _ cyar’ika, _ ” he said, his voice a little calmer now, but still gravelly.

“I’d hope you’re not done,” I responded. “Ruined my panties for nothing, otherwise.”

He started lightly tracing a finger over my slit, as he was doing earlier. There was no pressure, but it still made me whine, again hitting home just how aroused I was. “You did such a good job taking me down your throat, but I still have to punish you for being a tease and not doing as you were told,” Din said finally, his head tilting the other way. “How should I do that?"

I bit my lip again. “How… do you want to?” I asked, my hips shifting a little to try and get more pressure from his touch, but he moved his hand away entirely as a result. I let out a frustrated sigh.

“Well, spanking you isn’t a punishment, so that’s not an option,” he said. “On the other hand, I think you’ve earned being able to cum.” He then softly pressed his index finger on my clit, just pressure, not moving. I groaned a little bit, still frustrated. “I think I’ll just ruin a couple.”

I made a slightly disappointed sound in response, followed by an even more emphatic one when he pulled his hand away again, and pressed a few things on his vambrace, then spoke again.

“Close your eyes.”

“Okay,” I responded, slight confusion and curiosity in my voice. Usually he’d just go for the blindfold, but I could keep my eyes closed, I guess. But then I felt something lower onto my head and my breath hitched. Once it was fully seated, I opened my eyes, met with blackness.

Maker above, I was wearing his helmet.

It was warm, which I should’ve expected but oddly didn’t, and surprisingly comfortable despite not being created for my head. It smelled like him--his sweat, his breath, the soap he used. It was intoxicating on its own, but then he pressed a kiss to what parts of my neck were available, and I gasped softly, tilting my head to give him more access. He nibbled and kissed up and down my neck as he replaced a hand between my legs, starting to rub soft circles around my clit, not hard enough to get me much of anywhere, at least not yet. I hummed, my hand going up to his face, placing it on his cheek. He started rubbing a little harder, and I moaned softly, my hips shifting slightly at his touch. He bit down on my neck fairly hard, making me moan louder.

“Careful, I don’t have a good way to cover that up,” I breathed, surprised at the sound my own voice made thrown back at me within the confines of his helmet. My free hand rested on the outside of his leg.

“Maybe I want the whole galaxy to know you’re mine.” His voice sounded oddly modulated, still. I wondered for a split moment if he felt the same way about my voice as I felt about his when he took off the helmet. I felt a smirk spread across his lips as he spoke the words into my neck. I moaned again, something about that sentiment lurching me closer to a climax I knew was a dead end. In response, he increased his pressure and pace slightly, enough that I would definitely cum soon if he didn’t stop. I was breathing a little harder, and I think we both knew that with how aroused I was, it wasn’t going to take long for me to get to my first orgasm. Din kissed down to the top of my shoulder, and my fingers ran through his hair, gently at first but quickly starting to tug a bit as I got closer.

“Fuck! Din!” I gasped.

He laughed lowly. “Think you’re gonna cum?” he asked. “You know what has to happen first.”

I shook my head slightly, hoping to get him to change his mind, but that did not work at all. As soon as I was at the finish line, he ripped the rug out from under me and ruined my perfectly good climax. I groaned, frustration thick in my voice, my legs pulling together as I tried to work any tension I could out of my body.

“Hm. I don’t know, did you learn your lesson?” he asked teasingly, switching to the other side of my neck, starting to kiss and nibble there. “Better do one more to make sure.”

Another frustrated groan. He ignored me and started again, immediately making me moan out louder than before. Despite the fact that there was no relief in a ruined orgasm, it still made me just as sensitive as if I’d actually had one. My hips bucked under his touch, and I could feel that damn smirk against my skin. His other hand slipped from its position on my hip down to join the other, and he slipped two fingers into my slick entrance, making me moan again. He nearly immediately found a sensitive spot to focus his fingers on, curling against it constantly. My own hands went to the sides of his legs again, gripping onto the fabric there, my head tilted back into him, a small noise ringing out as helmet hit cuirass. These damn hands! They were so good at finding exactly where to make me completely fall apart. I had an odd feeling this position was making it slightly easier for him, too.

“Love how easy it is to make you a wet, squirming mess under me,” he mumbled, punctuating his sentence with a bite to my neck. “You tease me, be difficult, just to get me to put you back in your place.  _ Ner geroya ti. _ Mine to play with.” I moaned in response, my grip on the fabric of his pants only tightening. “And you know that, don’t you? You’re my perfect little slut, just begging to be forced back into submission.” I moaned again, louder this time, my walls rippling around his fingers at his words. His smirk only widened, and he bit down again, closer to where my shoulder meets my neck. “Tell me what you are,” he ordered.

He was just bound to bring me into new, uncharted territory every time we got busy, huh? I groaned, my hips twisting under his touch. “Mm… I’m your perfect little slut,” I agreed, walls rippling again. “Oh, fuck, Din, please,” I moaned, realizing again how close I was, surely in part to the little exchange that just happened.

“Please what,  _ cyar’ika? _ ” he asked.

“Please let me cum, please,” I begged, one of my hands going from the side of his leg back into his hair, gripping onto it feverishly.

He sighed, feigning consideration. “I said one more, Thessa,” he said. “You’ll get what you want soon enough.”

He didn’t yield to my plea, and ruined my next orgasm. This one was almost worse, the tension in my body nearly making me scream out in frustration. This was definitely more punishment than spanking ever would be. His hands rested on my thighs, gently massaging the flesh there. I was dazed and tense and exhausted, but I needed to get a real release or I would explode. My fingers untangled themselves from his hair, falling lazily to my side. He bit down on my neck again, making me gasp.

“So, did you learn your lesson?” he asked. “You know now what happens when you don’t behave?”

I sighed, my head rolling to the side. “Yes, daddy,” I breathed. My eyes shot fully open in the darkness behind the helmet, and suddenly I wasn’t so exhausted anymore thanks to the panic flooding through me. My hands came up to where my mouth would be to cover it, as if doing so would make me swallow my words and never let them hit Din’s ears. That was  _ super not _ something he was  _ ever _ supposed to know about, it was something that was supposed to stay in my brain, to use when I was horny and he wasn’t available.

“ _ What was that? _ ” he asked, amusement thick in his voice, his nails dragging up my thighs as one hand moved to roughly pinch my clit. I made a sound of surprise and my hips bucked. I was incredibly oversensitive.

“I-- I didn’t, that wasn’t--” I choked out. “You-- Maker I did not just say that out loud,” I finally said, hoping that would make it all go away. It did not.

“You definitely did,” he said in the same tone, the hand not between my legs starting to migrate upwards. I swallowed hard. I was in somewhat of a state of confusion, considering I was expecting him to just toss me off of him and run away, but he was definitely not doing that. In fact, he was getting hard again, pressing against my back.

Before I could think of an explanation or an excuse he was shoving me forward onto my knees, and shifting behind me. He quickly positioned himself on his knees as well, bending me forward a little. He sheathed his cock in me before I knew what was going on, and I moaned out, nearly falling forward, but he grabbed me and pulled me back into him. He replaced one hand between my legs, rolling my sensitive bud between his fingers. His other hand came firmly around my throat, squeezing just slightly, not cutting off my breathing. After I had adjusted to his presence, he began thrusting, quickly and somewhat erratically, still managing to find an absolutely devastating spot within me. I pushed back against him, already breathing fairly hard. So was he, his breath hot against my neck.

Neither of us lasted particularly long this round. After just a few minutes, I was moaning and gasping, my walls rippling around his cock, earning me delicious moans from him.

“F-fuck, I’m gonna…” I groaned, trailing off before I could even finish the sentence. That exhaustion was starting to resettle.

Din hummed, him grip around my neck tightening just slightly. “That’s it, cum for daddy,” he growled, some of that amusement still in his voice, but mostly masked by the fact he was about to climax himself. Regardless, his statement did me in, immediately sending me over the edge when I registered what he said. My orgasm triggered his own, my walls squeezing around him, making him shudder and squeeze tight enough around my neck to make it difficult, not impossible, to breathe. That just compounded the pleasure for me, making my eyes roll back and my abdomen shake slightly. We both collapsed back after a moment, and I gasped for air as he released my throat. We took a moment to come down from our highs. I once again groaned as he slipped out of me and got up in search of that cloth to clean me up. I heard him come back into the room, but he paused, and even though I couldn’t see a damn thing, I could feel his eyes on me. The embarrassment from what I said earlier reseated itself in my gut, and I felt my face heat up so much I swore I could see a faint glow.

I still didn’t address it. “What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he responded. “You just look really good in that helmet.”

I smiled a bit, my blush subsiding. He came over and cleaned me up, then sat on the bed next to me.

“Close your eyes again,” he said softly.

“Closed,” I said as I closed my eyes. “But--uh, get the blindfold. It is customary to kiss after a date, and we haven’t done that,” I said. I sat up slightly so he could remove his helmet from me. Once he did, he set it down on the side table. I kept my eyes shut tight until I felt the fabric of the blindfold against my face and it was tied securely around my head. I sat up more, reaching out for him. His hand met mine halfway and I pulled him down next to me. Our lips met, softly, and we kissed for a little while. Just… kissed. It was nice. But there was still an elephant in the room.

I pulled away slightly. “I’m… what I said was never ever supposed to leave my mouth,” I said. “Ever. I’m sorry if it… wasn’t comfortable.”

“You did feel how I reacted, right?” he asked in response. “It’s fine. You don’t have to do it again if you don’t want to, but… I was more than okay with it.”

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I had been holding since I stopped speaking. “Thank the Maker, I was afraid that was going to be a… complete turn off,” I said. “Or worse.”

He chucked a bit. “Gonna have to do a lot worse than that to find a turn off for me,” he said.

I kissed him again, feeling the smile on his lips. I may not have ever seen it, but it was a gorgeous smile to me. “Also, thank you for letting me see your hands,” I said. “It seems silly, but…”

“Of course,” he said. “If… I could, I’d show you more, but…”

I hummed. “This is the Way,” I responded.

“This is the Way,” he affirmed. I kissed him again, and we once again stayed like that for a while, lips moving against each other, just holding on to one another. I pulled away and turned my head to yawn at some point. He ran his fingers through my hair, and I hummed.

“Get some sleep,” Din suggested.

“Let me help you get out of your armor, first,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder where the clasp for his chestplate was.

“Okay,” he responded, sitting up and putting his helmet back on. He took off my blindfold, and I let my eyes adjust to the light. I’d been in the dark there for quite a while. I helped him take off his pauldrons as he worked on the armor on his chest and back. We worked in tandem on different pieces of armor, setting them aside in a neat stack before we settled back into bed, and I snuggled up against his chest, listening to him breathe.

“I had fun tonight,” I said again.

“So did I,” he said. “We’ll do it again sometime.”

I smiled, yawning again. “Mm. Love you,” I said, drowsiness in my voice. “G’night.”

“I love you too,” he answered, running his fingers through my hair as I fell asleep.

* * *

Din was just as exhausted as Thessa, but his mind wouldn’t stop racing. When he came back in the room and saw her with his helmet on, he was immediately reminded of the question she had asked him while they were out in Hanna City that night. “ _ What if I did? _ ” Such a simple question, but it hung heavy in his mind, not inherently in a bad way. He was considering it as if she were serious, though. He knew that it was a huge sacrifice, becoming a Mandalorian. She had to know that. It wasn’t a decision to take lightly, and the way that she had just thrown it out there suggested to him that she wasn’t  _ that _ serious about it. Still, his heart skipped a beat when she had said “This is the Way” just a few minutes ago.

All the same, the benefits may outweigh the costs. He wanted her safe, and the best way he could do that was to train her to his level, no matter how long that might take. She was already part of the way there, and she was a fast learner. The training she had received in the Rebellion was surprisingly extensive. Beyond the training, though, beskar armor would also keep her safe, more passively than training. And the implications on their relationship…

Din’s heart swelled at the idea of her being his  _ riduur, _ his spouse. Being able to have two Mandalorians, raising a foundling together, being able to show her his face and not breaking his oath, not becoming  _ dar’manda. _

It was then he came to a conclusion. He’d start training her, start teaching her the language more intentionally, start teaching her about Mandalorian history and culture. The parts of the  _ Resol’nare _ that he could instill in her now, then help her make the decision if she wants to when the time comes. If she agreed, they would travel back to Nevarro and to the covert to get her armor and have her officially swear the creed. He needed to figure out a way to ensure she wouldn’t feel pressured, however. This was a life changing decision, and he would understand if she didn’t want to make it. But she’d shown interest, and that was enough for now. With his mind made up, he took one last look at Thessa, the love of his life, and settled in for a few hours of sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Just a reminder that there's gonna be a little bit longer of a break than usual here soon because I want to rewrite this fic. Basically, Thessa was supposed to be a substitute for a reader insert because I am personally not a fan of the Y/N thing, but then she got fleshed out and I want to explore her character and her past and, cough, what happened when she was captured by the Empire.
> 
> On another note, I'm also going to start taking requests on tumblr, so if there's anything that you want to see Din and/or Thessa do that hasn't been touched on here, or tropes you want to see. So come say hi at spacegayofficial.tumblr.com !


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